AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

Otago Witness, 1 June 1910, Page 6

AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

In a leading article the Clutha Leader, discussing the proposal to establish freezing works at Balclutha —a proposal to be ventilated at a publi; meeting shortly —says: " We have gone into the question of the number of farmers in a district, the rough outer limits of which are bounded by North Vv 7 angaloa, Crichton, Waitahuna West, part of Tuapeka West, Clydevale, Pomanaka, Waiwera, and Catlin's River, and we find there ara nearly 1000, say, to be well within the mark, 800. Is it too much to ask that these 800 farmers alone take an average of £25 of shares each ! Surely not. If they do this we have £20,000 'ron these alone. We should say that if the thing is going to go ahead at all every farmer in the district would take a minimum of £25 in shares, and if we stick to this minimum, which we do not think too sanguine, ve should say the farmers' subscript Jon should total £30,000. Called up to only one-half this in itself would put the project upon a, financial basis. But, even if the farmers did not subscribe to the extent we have mentioned —if they only subscribed up to £20,000 —we have full confidence in saying that the subscriptions outside the farmers' will be sufficient to put the project upon a financial footing. As a minimum we believe the concern can be worked on, a basis of: nominal capital £50,000, subscribed £25,000, called up £12.500. But whole this is so it is advisable that subscriptions should be larger than the figures mentioned." All the sheds up the Molyneux River are filled to the doors with grain for transit to Balclutha, while huge piles ai - e stacked outside, and large quantities are still piled up in the fields whex-e it was threshed. Mr Tout alone has 2000 sacks of oats ready for

shipment, while fully 1000 tons of chaff are to como down. The steamer has three months' work in sight. At present she is making firios a week, a one-day trip being made to Beggs' and back. —Clutha Leader. A number of agriculturists in the Masterton district are stated to be going in for the solid straw wheat this year, due in . a great measure to the fact that it is supposed to be able to withstand the wind better ".than many other varieties. The grain is afeo stated to be fuller than that of other kinds. - The secretary of the Waikato Winter Show Association has received information by cable from Messrs Lovell and Christmas, London, through Mr Wesley Spragg, manager of the New Zealand Dairy Association, that they will donate a challenge cup for competition at the annual shows, and £5 annually in connection therewith, to be competed for by buttermakers. The conditions of the competition will come forward by next mail. The sowing of Algerian oats in the Masterton district is stated to be considerably heavier than usual this season, this variety being favoured on account of its rust-resist-ing properties. The Ashburton Guardian states that it is understood that Mr D. M'Lcan, of Mount Butt, Methven, intends to erect a creamery on his own estate, and with the aid of milking machines he will milk at least 250 cows during next season. Residents in the district have also guaranteed £6OO for a creamery at Bladder's corner, j near Methven. Mr F. Fulloon, of Ohoka, Canterbury, lost three valuable horses through their getting into a paddock in whioh half a sack of wheat had been left in an, s open shed. The animals then returned to the water in their own paddock. Mr Fallcon had been offered' £IOO for one of the best of the draughts. I The following paragraph is from the American Sheep-breeder:—"The American flockmaster who imagines mat sheepraising in the Argentine Republic has been reduced to a science will receive several shocks in reading the articles now appearing in the columns of the American Sheepbreeder. -When the American flockinastcr loses 25 per cent, of his lambs he thinks it a oalamity. Ten per cent, is about the average loss throughout the United States during an ordinary year. Our Argentine correspondent puts it: 'To American ears the yearly less of from 50 to 75 per cent, of the lambs will sound incredible,' but, nevertheless, this is true. Our authority states that barely 30 per cent, of the lamb harvest ever reaches the age of three months." The Tasmanian Government has yielded to the agitation whioh has been carried on throughout the Northwest Coast for a reduction of the potato tax, and the impost has been reduced from 2s to Is 3d per acre. This has been made retrospective, and a number of the field inspectors will be dismissed. Action has been taken by the Federal Government under the Commonwealth Quarantine Act, with the view of checking the spread of potato blight beyond the boundaries of the State in which it appears. The Minister of Customs has issued a proclamation prohibiting .the removal of potatoes or other solanaeeous plants from certain districts in South Australia to any part of the Commonwealth in which Irish potato blight does not exist, and declaring them subject to quarantine. A firm of London woolselling brokers has issued some interesting statistics regarding the production and consumption of wcol, which reveal the fact that during the last 10 years there has been a serious falling off of supplies. A comparison between the periods of 1891-1900 and 1901-9 of the quantity of clean wool at the disposal of the industry, calculated at per head of population, shows a falling off of per cent. This affords a proof of the contention put forward that" the production of wool is not keeping pace with the increase in the world's population, and undoubtedly is the main reason of the satisfactory level of wool values. The Victorian correspondent of the Sydney Mail writes:—"The exceptionally dry autumn in some of the potato-growing dis- ! tricts has been favourable to the development of a pest which has hitherto affected roses and other growth of the garden. The 'thrip' insects have become so numerous in the Lancefield district that they have jiob only attacked peas and various garden vegetables, but also so devoured the leaves of the potato crops as to prevent the tubers from developing Last season the same pest did about £BOOO worth of damage in the district, and the loss is still greater this year. The potato expert of the Agricultural Department carried out a spraying experiment which shows that the pest could be effectually dealt with if taken systematically in hand, but the great difficulty is the presence of the thrips upon the green vegetation of such large areas surrounding the crops. The expert sprayed with two solutions, one being tobacco water, and the other benzine emulsion. Both gave satisfactory results, but the most effectual was the benzine emulsion, which is also the cheaper remedy. The official report, unfortunately, does not make it clear that systematic investigation is being contini ed, for it is highly imiportant that growers should be informed how to present less in the future There is rather

an inference suggested by the report that the department and the growers are to hope for wetter seasons to check the depredations of the pest."