STOCK AND GRAZING NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2996, 16 August 1911, Page 15

STOCK AND GRAZING NOTES.

Weekly Stock Sales; Burnside, Wednesdays Ashburton, Tuesdays Addington. Wednesdays Waiareka Railway Junction, Tuesdays Fortnightly; Bulolutha, Fridays Gore, Tuesdays Oamaru, Tuesdays Invercargili, Tuesdays

Monthly: Ngapara, first day in each montJa month Dmrtr o on second Fri;ach mont h kouaiti. Periodically: Clinton, Palmerston, Winton, and Waideriot, Kelso, Kyeburu

BURNSIDE MARKET. Fat Cattle. —Tho. number forward —viz., 200 head, was just about sufficient loathe requirements of tho trade, and butchers wero able to supply their wants at a reduction of 30s to 40s per head on last week’s prices. A large percentage of the cattle were good beef, but there was also a bad tail end. In epito of the fact that the larger butchers were supplied from outside sources, prim© bullocks sold at from 30s to 33s per 1001 b, and cow and heifer, bosf realised 28s per 1001 b. Two splendid three-year-old shorthorn (heifers from Elderslie would have doubled their money if it had been possible to breed with them. Fat Sheep.—Some of the pens forward) ware really prim© wethers, which could not be beaten in any part of the world. In addition to these the yarding consisted mainly of good to forward wethers. There were few ewes in the yards, but good pens realised Freezing buyers wore operating for first-grade wethers at 3gd, and they were purchasing more freely than during the previous week’s sale. A little less than that figure may be quoted for heavy weights, which sold at up to 25s 9d for 851 b sheep. On account of Home reports, freezing buyers were inclined! to be more careful, and passed same fine pens of sheep. Fat Lambs.—There wore very few fat lambs in the yards, and a poor lot at that. THE STORE MARKET. Sheep. —Th© usua' fortnightly sales were held at Clinton and Balciutha on Thursday and Friday of last week, when fairsized yardings for this season of the year cam© forward. At both sales th© demand was good for all classes of sheep at full market rates. At Clinton a line of good crossbred wotbars in forward condition made 18s 6d, while hoggets of all grades sc Id well. The entry at Balciutha was made up of fat wethers, ewes, and hoggets, a few of the lots of each description being of first-rate quality. Fat wetners sold fairly well, but the demand from butchers was not quite so good as usual. Freezing buyers, however, kept them up to export values, and for many of the lets that could do with a little finishing graziers paid good prices. For one lino of six and .eight-tooth big-framed balfbred wethers of th© latter class 21s was refused, while other lots were purchased at 16s 3d to 18s. The highest price paid was 26s for a small lot of extra heavyweight crossbred -wethers, averaging fully 103!b In breeding ewes a small pen of specially well-bred young Romneys made 22s 6d, two, four, six, and eight-tooth ewes, small, brought 14s 6d to 16s 6d; crossbred ewes, mixed sexes, mostly fullmouthed and failing, in good condition, sold up to 14s 6d; while th© ruling price for aged sorts was 8s to 11s. Crossbred hoggets were represented by all grades—big, well-grown, mixed sexes sold at 14s to 15s 7d,, and medium to small at 10s 6d to 13s.

Cattle. —The cattle forwarded wero a very mixed lot, and not up to the usual standard. They met with a fair demand) from butchers and graziers, the latter taking more than half tho entry. The store" cattle pens wore practically empty. Th© only lot of any consequence consisted of a pen of well-bred forward bullocks that were taken by a local buyer at £9 2s 6d. . , A , General. —During the week the stock market has been quiet, and no sales of any consequence have taken place. There is no scarcity of feed, and until winter feed begins to give out farmers are not likely to put their stock market; n or© especially in view of tac prevailing opinion that when grass comes away in the north there will bo a good demand farstock from that quarter. THE VARIATIONS OF THE FAT MARKET. A southern farmer sent a truck of fat cattle to Burnside three weeks ago, and was offered £lO 10s per head for them, which he refused. They were forwarded to Oamaru, and th© best offer he could get their© was £9 10s, which was also refused. Ho consigned them once more back to Gore, and got £ll 5s each for them, and if they bad been sold on Wednesday a fortnight ago he would have realised £l4 each for them. Tho difference between th© lowest and highest would mean a very handsome profit for a year's grass.

SUPPLIES FOR FREEZING. All th© sh©ep put through the Freezing Works last week amounted to 1320, and with the exception of about 300 were all (secured at Burnside —that is to say, less than one full day’s work for the machinery and the men. Lambs arc evidently done for the season, and the few lots that have been forwarded recently have killed badly. If all the lambs are sent away, where is “prime Canterbury” to come from? Tho supplies of wethers will naturally be affected to a considerable extent, and there is no question which class pays best to ship. There will always be a proportion of aged wethers available, as wo have a good deal of country on which dry sheep are more profitable to keep than breeding ewes, but tho lamb trade will probably bo the predominating feature of the export trade from the South Island as long as existing conditions prevail at Home. At pre sent only the ewe lambs suitable for breeding and the culls unfit for freezing and retained by tho breeders, and the works could deal with the rest in a short time if running full time. This season up to the present time 195,432 carcases of sheep and lambs have been handled, which is an increase of about 36,000 over the record for the same period of last year. Had the Oamaru and Burnside works been working to their full capacity during the past season they could have dealt with more than three times the quantity mentioned, or, approximately, 600,000 sheep or lambs.

NEW MARKET GOING ABEGGING. > Judging from a letter published in another column, there is a good opening for stock and produce at Fmta Arenas, th© Argentine port in the Starts of Magellan. The writer States that a market exists there for a good many things we could send them and that freignt is available from there to London to fill up again with. The New Zealand Shipping Company lost the Mataura in the Straits of Magellan recently, and hencaptain is now British Consul in Pnnta Arenas, and could supply any information required. Since the loss of the Mataura insurances for ships using th© Magellan Straits have gone up to such an extent that unless a considerable amount of cargo is available it does not pay tho company to call. In any case, during the wool season any space taken up from here to Punta Arenas would probably be lost from there to London, and as the Patagonians are already served fortnightly by the Pacific Steam Navigation Company, and as these ships connect with the royal mail from London to Montevideo, they will probably clean up all tho freight available from that point onwards. If plenty of freight was -available the company would soon take up the trade. Present shipments would have to be transferred at Montevideo, and that would mean heavy dues and increased expenses. DELIVERY ARRESTED. The failure to unload perishable colonial products from the ships hung up in the Thames and the recent strikes among the wool-combing operatives at Bradford should enable farmers to realise that a combined front is absolutely requisite to deal with organised labour. No concessions seem to satisfy the unsaitiabl© demands of the labour agitators; the more they get the more they want. One of the evils which is beginning to press with insistent force is the scarcity of efficient agricultural labour. Labour there is of a sort —a sort which demands abundant leisure, and conditions which render it impossible for the farmer to conduct his business in the ordinary way. There is now none of that spirit Which induced a man to look after bis master’s interest as bis own; he is simply regarded as a means to an end, an employer to bo squeezed to the greatest possible extent for the smallest possible amount of work. It is nothing to them that the world sets th© price of our products. Wo realise that when our mutton is paying heavy dues in the London docks and cannot get to its destination; and if this is so the world also fixes the wages Which can be given to create these products. There is a craving for quasi-respect-ability, for dear clothing, apd extravagant living, and no pleasure whatever is taken in ■ the work they have in hand. But the country demands more than a firm attitude in reference to labour. It demands the utilisation of capital for the development of its resources, and such incidents as the dislocation of trade caused by hanging up our ships will not improve our communications, but have rather the opposite effect. The only thing that will save us from unfair labour demands would bo a slump in the value of all our products which involve much labour. Th© artificial conditions of labour which arc now set up in Now Zeaand, and which are being intensified daily, would then have the bottom knocked clean out of them.and a fresh start under reasonable stipulations would have to be made.

KING’S CATTLE. lI.M. the King sent 66 head of fat stock to a special Coronation sale at th© Slough cattle market recently, where they realised a total of £516 ss. The stock, which came from tho Royal farms at Windsor, included 14 Devon bullocks, a Scotch Highland bullock, a fat calf, 10 Southdown wether sheep, 10 Southdown lambs, five balfbred lambs, and 25 balfbred Scotch sheep. The 15 bullocks made £397 15s, the calf £6 2s 6d, and the 50 sheep and lambs £ll2 7s 6d. The highest prices paid were £2B 15s for a

single Devon bullock, £l2 10s for a pen of five Southdown wether sheep, and £ll 5s for a pen of five Southdown iambs. N.S.W. MEAT SUPPLY. Captain A. W. Pears©, editor of the Pastomlists’ Review, has framed a scathing indictment against N.S.W. meat, for in the course of his evidence before the Public Works Committee he said: “The meat lulled in Sydney is hot and fevered, and subsequently bad. The people in Sydney are eating bad meat all the time. It is a wellknown fact that New South Wales meat ifl the worst sold in London. It is always going at the bottom prices, and nearly always discoloured.” To this Mr J. M. Paxton (president of the Chamber of Commerce) made the following rejoinder:—“The point that Captain Pearse makes is, that the cattle are slaughtered too soon after coming out of the railway trucks. The point that Captain Pearse does not apear to have made —for it was not referred to in the report of his evidence in the papers—is the reference to the loading and unloading of stock into railway trucks, a matter, too, on which he is well qualified to speak. The method of loading stock in this State is utterly behind the times. Take the case of the Argentine, our greatest competitor in the meat tra ie. and you will find they have an infinitely preferable system of loading trucks by means of end doors. They have also a law in Argentine which prohibits live stock being kept in railway trucks for more than 24 hours. If the journey occupies more than that time then the railway company has to unload, feed,, and water the stock before the journey can be continued. The result is the railways make special efforts to get their stock trains through within the 24 hours, which is really what the law aims at enforcing in an indirect way. I cannot tell you on my own authority how long stock has sometimes been kept in our own railway trucks, but I have been told by some of the stock people it has been as long as two or three days.” THE SHEARING SEASON IN NEW SOUTH WALES. The shearing (says the Sydney Town and Country Journal) bids fair to be a very early one. Good, progress is reported from the early districts, and operations are widely extending. During this month work will bo fairly general. Plenty of land is available, and while - pastoralists and shearers’ representatives fight out the question of rates in the Arbitration Court, shearing proceeds merrily on the old basis. Many stations are shearing earlier this season. Cadow, m the Forbes district, is two months ahead of other district sheds. In the Brewarrina district, work is fairly general, and wool teams are constantly arriving at the railway. Shearing is in full swing in the Broken Hill district. The work is proceeding satisfactorily, and a good clip is anticipated. Blade shearers are scarce, and small sheepowners who have applied to the A.W.U. for band-shearers cannot be accommodated so far. In the Riverina a good many sheds have been shearing studs, and early this month many will make a start at the general shearing. So far shearers appear to be scarce, but no serious difficulty of securing hands is anticipated. NEW BUTTER. It will be good news to consumers of butter to learn that some of the Taranaki dairy factories which have only been closed for about a month find it necessary to reopen earlier than usual, as many of the cows have already commenced milking. One factory is turning out 11 boxes of butter every alternate day. MILK TEST. The milk test at the Royal Counties Show at Weymouth was open to coWs of any breed, which were milked dry the evening before the test began, and the milk for the nCxt 24 hours was fudged, points being given as follows:—One point for every 11b of milk, 1 point for every completed 10 days since calving, detracting the first 40 days—maximum points for lactation 12; 4 points for every 1 per cent, of fat, taking the average of two milkings. Co we with less than 3 per cent, of butterfat disqualified. Of 19 entries, 12 were Guernseys, five Jersey, and the balance Lincoln red. The first prize was secured l by one of the latter, which gave 661 b 2oz of milk on the 3.65 test after milking 100 days. She secured in accordance with the above regulations 65.12 points for milk, 14.60 for fat, and 6 points for lactation—a total of 86.72. CHEESE AND BUTTER MARKETS. Weddel and Co. under date June 30, reported as follows :—- Cheese. —This demand for New Zealand cheese continues good* and supplies are diminishing. Receipts for the past four ■week are ju?t a little over half of what they were for the previous four, the exact figures being 25,546 cwt against 50,295 cwt, If compared with 12 months ago, the total arrivals of all kinds of cheese for the past five weeks are 61,897 cwt less than they were then. Butter. —The demand for Australian

butter ia still good. The labour troubles have been of assistance to Australasia this week owing to Scandinavian and Siberian supplies being detained in the holds of the vessels in the port of Hull. Arrivals _of Australian have been 17,000 boxes coming to hand in the Osterley, and the _ Ayrshire shipments from Australia this week amounted to 7626 boxes. Canadian new season butter is beginning to arrive, but only small quantities. The prices in anada are pi-eventing shipments to this country. The supply of foreign, butter increasing, arrivals for the last four weeks being 55,200 cwt in excess of the previous year. The increased supply came _ from Siberia, Denmark, France, and Holland. NOTES FOR FACTORY CHEESEMAKERS. A perusal of the Canadian bulletin by Mir J. A. Ruddick, published in another column, will well repay any milk supplier or cheese factory manager. It is not often they can get hints outside of the •department, and although some of it may not be new, perhaps, it sets out- concisely what ought to be done in certain circumstances, and in Mr J. R. Scott’s opinion is entitled to the approval of cheese experts, The various hints will no doubt be appreciated by working cheesemakers. MANUFACTURE OF CASEIN. Mr S. M. Oottee, of Tregeagle, Lismore, New South Wales, -who has returned from Europe, proposes to establish a factory for the manufacture of casein, which is oftainod from skim milk by a secret process, the right of which for Australia he acquired during his visit to France. That at Lismore will be the central depot, but receiving statio'ns, or, ns the yare known in the trade, precipitating stations for skim milk, will be established wherever a supply of from 2000 gal to SOOOgal of skim milk can be obtained. At these stations the base in will be separated from the whey, and the product obtained forwarded into the head factory for final treatment. The whey left after the casein has been precipitated Mr Cottee will feed to pigs. The price to be paid the farmers will, it is estimated, be an increase of something like 100 per cent, on the value of the skim milk as pig feed. Casein, it may be added, is very largely used in the celluloid industry. The Wanganui Dairy Cofnpany intend to commence the of casein next season. It is said that this new industrywill be carried on at nearly all the company’s creameries. The casein will be taken into the main factory at Aramoho to be dried and packed.