AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS

Otago Witness, Issue 2923, 23 March 1910, Page 7

AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS

A Wellington message states that the Minister of Agriculture is considering a pro- , posal to meet the difficulties which makers Of private dairy butter are experiencing I in preventing their butter from containing an excess of moisture. It has been swgRested by the director of the dairy produce division that a depot should be established at one or more of the central- shipping! ports, through which makers of dairy butter would ha've the privilege of sending their produce. At such depot it would be tested before shipment, and in some cases, where any excess of moisture in the butter was detected, it could be re-marked and repacked before" shipped' for a small charge, estimated at 6d per box. At a meeting of the Gisborno Branch of the Farmers' Union, held on the 10th in St., it was resolved :—" That the meeting strongly urge upon the Government to see that the: necessary legislation is introduced making it compulsory for all meat exported from the Dominion to bo graded by a Government .grader, in the same manner as i butter-, cheese; and hemp are now graded." : It was not suggested that there should be any uniform grade throughout the Dorniaion, but that, if the experts considered there was a marked difference in quality, . discretion should be allowed them. Nor was j it suggested that th& grader should be given any power to interfere with the classification of the meat for trade purposes, or that he should stop the export of any meat so long as it was not- diseased, and was fit for human consumption, although it was below the standard of the ordinary established grades. Under those circumstances it should be marked, "Rejected from or below grading." as was how done with lowgrade hemp* butter, and cheese. - A purebred PTolstein cow . belonging to Mr ft. H. Cameron, >f Stratford, recently j gave birth ;to four calves at one calving. The calves all died. A class ;df 20 has been formed in Waimate for instruction in wool-classing. The Technical Association has engaeed the services of Mr H. Hart, of Temuka, as instructor v - ■ A young, ■ farmer on the Fairlie line had 20 hives of black bees last year, and ob • tained 9001 b of marketable honey . from them. Learning that, the Italian bees are more orqfitable, he raised a stock, and this year from the same number of hives of j Italian bees, he got two tons of honey; One of the 20 hives yielded 4001 b. At its annual meeting in Christehurch the_ Corriedale Sheepbreeders' Association decided that a flock must have been established for 15 years before beimy eligible for registration and inspection oy representatives of the Corriedale Sheepbreeders' Association. The pi-;rp tVls c.<v.=. oll f. nr -,->-:-,, c 10-.tV.55 sold in Marlborough for freezing ha 3 been, up to, 10s 6d. but a considerable number have been shipped on owners' account. Mr Rupert Parry, the well-known sheepbreeder, of Kingsdown, South Canterbury suffered a loss of about £IOO recently through 27 of his stud rams dying after being dipped. The experimental pork shiomenfs from New Zealand- still continue. The Wakanui had on board 108 carcases of frozen pork j from Auckland, The respectable profit of £llOO was made at the Highland Society's show at Stirling last year. This season, the society's show will take place on July 19 and three following days at Dumfries, where an excellent site has been secured. The prize list will exceed £3OOO. The society's 1911 show will be held at Inverness, and in thsi following year it is expected that the'vemia j will be laid in the Perth district. Up to latest advices a total of 5191 cases has been secured for the initial shipment of j Nelson apples by the Paparoa on March 26. Over 80 growers are participating, the largest shippers being Messrs H. Everett (Riwaka) and B. Lloyd (Motueka) with 500 cases each. Th%re are thirteen other growers who are sending 100 cases and over. The average number of cases I per grower is 60. An interesting experiment in manuring land for onions has been conducted in Nassau, Bahamas, the outcome of which is to show : that on a soil of "intermediate fertility" ! blood and bone manure gives excellent results ; 18cwt of this manure, costing £lO, was spread over an acre after forking the soil over to a depth of 9in. The manure was then worked into the surface, and

drills lin deep and 9in apart were made for the seeds. Bed and white Bermudas were sown, and the soil was then made firm by treading. The result was a crop of onions which, at Id per lb, were valued, at £129 10s. This showed a profit of £73 10s, the cost of labour being estimated at £46. The othei kinds of manure tried were sheep manure, cotton seed meal, and „cow manure, the last-named in the proportion of 36cwt to the acre. None of these, however, gave such good results as the. blood and bone manure, sheep manure comI in? next, the crop obtained through it. ; being valued at £lO7, showing a profit of £55. The Waimate Agricultural and Pastoral i Association's' Committee has decided _to : assist the Winter Show Society by offering ; three m#dals, valued- at one guinea each, ; for the "greatest numbers of points in wheat, oats, and barley. These classes have been taken out of the association's summer show catalogue. In a quarter of a century the sheep figures of France decreased by 40 per cent. Between and 1505 Austria-Hungary dronpcd' from 20,000.000 to 10.000,000. and Germanv between 1870 and 1907 reduced "K-v,- flocks from 25,030,0.0.0 to 7,000,000. There has been no considerable reduction in the ■ period in the number of sheep in England. Large numbers of draught horses are bpi'ne-. ssnt from the North Island, to be ebTd in. Melbourne and Sydney. No" fewer than 36 draught horses were shipped from Wellington to Victoria by the Mceraki. Twenty-one of these (says the Dominion) are three to seven-year-old mares and geldings, which Mr W. M'Gafnn. of Hastings, is taking over for sale in Melbourne. They are a fine lot, of horses, and Mr M'Gaffin i stated to a Dominion representative chat for one pah he had been offered £IOO in I Hawke's Bay. while for another mare : he had refused £6l. He expected this : latter animal to bring in fullv £IOO on the other side. Next week his brother is to take over a further shipment of 24 hordes. It is Mr M'Gaffin's intention to . visit New South Wales, where draughts j are at nresent in strong demand, and if the out-Took is sufficiently favourable ho may get together a shipment of anything up to a hundred horses for Sydney.. Mr R. D'. Kniarht, the well-known breeder of Longburn, has been busily engaged in filling Australian orders for seme time past, and has sent awav 15 mares, two to four years olds, to a customer in Ballarat. The previous week Mr Knight shipped > between 20 and 30 horses to Melbourne, but his largest consignment this season was on February 3. when 52 horses \vere sent across, seven being stallions. The demand from Australia is stated to be duo to the extension of wheac-growing in "Victoria and New South Wales, farmers ' requiring good staunch horses of a typo not at present too plentiful in the States. ,