AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3102, 27 August 1913, Page 19

AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

Tlie twenty-second annual meeting of the Fanners’ Co-operative Insurance Association was. held at Christchurch last week. The annual report stated that the revenue, including- a balance of £897 Z& lOd carried forward, totalled £17,080 12s lOd, and the expenditure £9289 13s 9d, leaving a sum of £7760 19s Id to bo dealt with. After appropriating £2200 to reinsure current risks, an available balance of £5590 19s Id remained for distribution, out of which the directors recommended the payment of a dividend at the rate of 7 per cent, on paidup capital, a bonus of 10 per cent, to shareholders who had not benefited by- the reduction of 33 1-3 per cent, on fire premiums, and the transfer of £IOOO to the reserve account. The losses during the vear amounted to £3215 2s 9d, and the premiums in the various departments to £10,309 3s 9d. The reserve now stands at £22,000. Speaking to the toast of the “ Agncultural Interests ” at a wedding breakfast at Riverside on Wednesday (rejwrts the Southland Tunes), Mr W. Plunket said the drain plough made Southland. It recalled to his memory a period of some twenty odd years ago, when the late Mr W. K. Hazlott invented the drain plougp. Although ether makes were attempted about that time, Mr lla/,!c-tt’s was the only ono approaching perfection. If, as has been proved, the drain plough, made Southland, then the prosperous, farmers of to-day owe much to the inventive powers of the late Mr Hazlett. Prior to the advent of the implement it was found impossible to successfully drain the largo areas of flat country, which are now capable of cultivation even in a wot season. The Waverley Co-operative Dairy Co. has just experienced a record year. The average price paid for butter fat, 13.187 d per lb, is the highest paid by any factory on the coast and probably in New Zealand that sold on open consignment. The three pure-bred Shropshire wethers sold for Mr F. Bull at the record price of £l4 10s per head have been killed by Messrs Dixon Bros, (says the Christchurch Press), and their weights are respectively 2271 b, 2081 b, and 1861 b. The three Romney - Shropshire wethers from the came breeder, which made £9 10s per head, have dressed out respectively at 2091 b. 2001 b, arid 2001 b. One of Mr W. F. Clintoon’s Wenslcydale cress wethers weighed 2231 b. Now potatoes grown in the Auckland d strict are already on the Wellington market. The Akaroa Mail states that an increased number of rnako-makos are on the Peninsula this year. Those birds migrate into certain districts quite inexplicably, and for some years past there have not been many seen on the Peninsula. The rainfall of last week was timely so far as the crops about Livingstone are concerned (says tbe Oamaru Mail). Autumneown grain brairded well, but was commencing to show that discolouration at the tips that is a sign of want of moisture. Now that is altered, and with the fresh vigor given to the growing crops there is every prospect of a satisfactory harvest. A Waimate firm shipped 700 bags by the Moeraki on her'recent trip, 1100 bags by the Manuka, and was prepared to send another 25 tons at the beginning of last week providing the pcjtatoes passed the grader. An Oamaru firm has also made some shipments, and it is not unlikely, seeing that the opportunity of a boat from Oamaru to Newcastle will present itself this week, that there will be some direct exportations. A settler in the Ekctahuna district possesses a very profitable pot ewe, says the Express. For the past three seasons she has given birth to twins, and again this year two lambs arc running at hoi- side. The lambs arc always bespoken by a local butcher, who pays up to 15s a piece for them. Not only docs the ewe rear her own progeny, hut every season she fostermothers two other lambs, which also find their way to the butcher’s shop. Apart from the lambs she rears, the ewe clips from IOIh to 121 b of wool every season. Burglary is not one of the prevailing epidemics at Waimate (says the North Otago Times), but something of a kindred nature is taking place. When a farmer went to deliver his threshed grain from the field lie found that 20 sacks had been purloined from the middle of the stack, and other farmers complain of losses in the same way.