AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2929, 4 May 1910, Page 20

AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

The Akaroa correspondent of the Lyttelton Times states that the walnut harvest on the Peninsula will be closing down very shortly. Until quite recently the supply of milk has been well maintained, feed! having been plentiful —indeed, visitors from different parts of the Dominion during the Easter holidays said that nowhere was grass growing better. The increased milk supply, together with the good prices obtained for cheese, will make this season a record one. The Akaroa correspondent of the Lyttelton Times states that the walnut harvest has been a very good one this year, up-, wards of 1000 sacks having been secured'. The price obtained this year has been better than usual. He adds that some good crops of late potatoes, quite clean, are now ■being dug. Earlier crops were much, affected! with the blight. The crops of apples and pears are quite up to the average. The regulations relating to orchard spraying are giving beneficial results. At the annual meeting of the Aldington Cattle Insurance Fund the report stated that during the year 11,831 cattle had been insured, and that claims had been made on the fund in respect of 218 animals, or 1.84- per cent, of those insured. The balanca sheet showed that the income for the year ended January 31 had amounted to £B7O 14s 6d! ; and the expenditure to £763 15s, leaving a credit balance of £lo6 19s 6d. It was stated that the premiums were the lowest charged in any part of the world. Every farmer who likes to sec his stock in good heart and condition should try mixing coarse salt in the feed, or place it about the paddocks, and he will find his stock thriving and on much less feed. In an interview with Mr Thomas O'Neill, who has had many years' experience in the Argentine, that gentleman informed a Dominion representative that he consideredl the three most promising lines for trade with the Argentine were binder-twine, seed-wheat, and apples. The' Argentine is now the second largest wheat-growing'

country in the world, and will soon be the largest. She imports nearly all her bindertwine from North America, and some years ago was experimenting with a light wire ai K- if" trown Paper binding, neither of winch, however, gave particularly satisfactory results. Seed-wheat was another iine for which there might be a very fair opening. There was a big enough demand tor it, and, if New Zealanders could convince the Argentine wheat-growers that they can supply a satisfactors article, good business should result. Mr O'Neill has an intimate first-hand acquaintance with the Wheat-growers of Argentina, and used to drive regularly through the wheat country in a two-horse American buggy going from homestead to homestead. He says the •growers are keen on innovations and improvements, and are always on the look,out for new varieties of wheat. FinpJly, there is the apple trade. Argentina is a very poor fruit-growing country, and there is undoubtedly a splendid field for the New Zealand fruit-grower to open up. Mr O'Neill says it has often puzzled him to know just why the New Zealand direct liners continue to call at Monte Video inS'tead of at Buenos Aires, where there is splendid dock accommodation, and a chance for passengers to have a look at the biggest city in the Southern Hemisphere. At Monte Video there is no harbour, and the eea is so shallow that the steamers have to lie miles off shore in the roadstead.