AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2927, 20 April 1910, Page 20

AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

A meeting of the Otago Shearers’ Union was held 1 on Saturday night (says the Oamaru Mail), when Mr M. Laracy (general secretary for the association) spoke in regard to the work of the conference recently held in "Wellington. He stated that the name of the federation had been changed • to the Woolshed Employees’ Association of Workers. The Association would embrace all unions of men working in or about the woolsheds with the exception ot the cooks, who were already provided for by the cooks and waiters’ unions .jjn the cities. A scale of wages and conditions were drawn up ready to be placed before the pastoralists at a conference which it <s hoped will be arranged to be held in the course of the next two months.. Steps had been taken to secure the registration oi the association in the meantime. :Appreciation was expressed by the meeting ot the work which had been done by the conference.

Wet weather has interfered to some extent with potato-digging in the Orepuki district. Heavy consignments are (says the Advocate) finding their way to northern markets, where a moderate demand exists. So far, markets are well supplied, and prices do not show any tendency to harden. Growers generally are not disposed to hold, and show a preference to Bell "off the fork."

During a chat with Mr Andrew Chrystal after his,.return from" the . Sydney, horse isales, that veteran exporter inferred that the export business was inclined (says the Winton Record) to be overdone, especially by shippers who are not too scrupulous about the quality. Mr Chrystal is very jealous of the name Southland "had made for itself as a producer of Clydesdales, and maintains that every care should be taken to retain its high reputation. An Aehburton grain merchant stated to A Lytteltor Times reporter that grain was •being carted into the sheds in fairly large quantities. The condition af the wheat that had been stacked for two months had -Much improved, and in consequence correspondingly better values were being paid to vendors. Some particularly fine samples of Bordier wheat had been grown in the county this season, and the wheat had come "into 6uch great favour that practically the whole of the lines carted in to the grain stores had been purchased in small lots bj farmers for seed purposes. Bordrer •wheat was in every way suited to the climatic variations and the conditions ot the coil in the Aehburton County. It was a fine milling wheat, and, as a matter of fact, had given the highest milling test 3ast year. In his opinion it was a wheat that would, in time to come, largely take the place of Hunter's. A cons: gnment of 296 Lincoln two-tooth flock rans was shipped to Sydney last week by the Moaaia. The rams were purchased from breeders in the Hawera district, and;4i*e being dispatched by the New Zealand I&an and Mercantile Company to the order|pf a New South Wales'client/-# v Mr K. m. Knight, of Longburn, Wellington, h&s sent another lot of draught horses —lB in all—across vtcC Melbourne \o the UJimaroa. - , • • . - With the cooperation of mt Agriculture] Department, experiments in regrase}ng a/* Mug conducted in the Mackenzie

f Country. On the Simon's' Pass Station a small plot of land has been subdivided for treatment. Chi "one half of it all;'he dead grass and other vegetation pulled u-p was cleared off; on the other half it was not. Then a dozen different grasses were sown in strips on or.e part of both the "" cleared and yncleared so:), and on the rest mixed seeds were sown. The anscarified pieces .include tome bare soil, and also j some with tussock remaining. An interesting experiment in the eradication of Californiai? thistle has been made by Mr H. H. Wall, at Manutuke, Poverty Bay. That gentleman has tried a solution of sulphate of iron (green copperas), putting it on pretty strong and applying a cupful to each plant. He found that even with one application the thistles nad died back, and on taking them up by the 'roots he had found the roots black right through. Mr Wall (says the Poverty bay Herald) is satisfied that the sulphate of iron, if used systematically, would quickly lead' to the extermination of this noxious weed.