AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3335, 13 February 1918, Page 9

AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

Considerable quantities of cheese and butter continue to go into the cool stores at Dunedm, Bluff, and Lyttelton, in readiness for shipment when a Homo vessel is available, and a difficulty is now being experienced to find storage room for all the supplies. The contractors for the new cool store at the Victoria wharf have made great progress with the building, and it is hoped that it will be sufficiently completed in about a fortnight's time to permit of a large quantity of cheese being stored there. This should give the dairy factories much needted relief —that is, of course, so far as the Otago factories are concerned. | Terms of the requisition of New Zealand butter and cheese on Imperial account aro now gazetted. The following prices are to bo paid for butter delivered free on board steamer at a customary grading port for carriage to tho United Kingdom: Creamery butter—First grade, 157 s per cwt. In the case of second grade butter a deduction of 6d per cwt shall be made for each halfgrade point by which the butter falls below first-grade. Whey butter and dairy butter: First-grade, 133 s 8d per cwt; secondgrade, 129 s per cwt. Milled butter: Firstgrade, 124 s 4d per cwt; second-grade, 119 s 8d per cwt. The price to be paid by tho Government in the case of first-grade fullcream factory choose is lOd per lb, and in the case of second-grade factory cheese 9Jd per lb, delivered free on board an ocean steamer at tho customary grading port for direct carriage to the United Kingdom. The prices to be paid for dairy cheese are B£d 'per lb for first-grade, and 8d per lb for second-grade, delivered free on board. Some American views on tho Australian wheat problem were given at Melbourne recently by Mr H. Penhallurick, who has had over 30 years' experience in various capacities in the wheat business in Canada and the United States, and who arrived in Victoria in March last, and has been concerned in wheat handling since. Mr Penhallurick condemned the proposal to cut down tho area under wheat, which, if carried out, ho declared, would dislocate the business fabric of Australia. Australian wheat had made a name for itself, and if the country dropped out of the business of exporting wheat now it would have difficulty in subsequently recovering its lost trade. In the meantime other countries would bo stimulated to make greater efforts in the matter of wheat-growing. He did not think that tho price of wheat would fall during the next 20 years to the low levels experienced at times during the last couplo of decades. Further, tho Imperial Food Commission was not likely to be disbanded after the war, and the probability was that the Government would have no difficulty in making a fixed contract with the Home Government on a definite basis. The chief obstacle seemed to be to devise a proper system of handling the wheat in the country. While Mr Penhallurick could offer no solution of the shipping problem, he maintained that wheat could be stored andl kept for an indefinite period, as the weevil difficulty would be surmounted. An effiectivo system of storing wheat on the farms should bo developed. It looked a big order to carry millions of bushels of wheat, and that thero would need to bo devised very radical measures in tho matter of finance, but it should be possible to do this on comtmon-senso lines in Australia itself without borrowing. In the United States, through excellent organisation amongst the farmers, it was now possible for a farmer to present a wheat certificate at any bank, and secure an advance of 60 to 70 per cent., whereas 10 years ago application for such advances were often refused. The money could now

bo got at 6 per cent., whereas formerly 13 per cent, had been charged. Another of Mr J. Donald's Westmere (Wanganui) Friesiaq herd has just completed her semi-official test, a four-year-old heifer named Woodcrest Johanna Tehee, with the splendid record of 21,483.11 b milk and 754.961 b fat. This makes this final heifer the champion milk cow of New Zealand. Replying to a series of questions by M> Pigott (N.S.W.) in the House of Represeii. tatives on January 25, the Prime Minister stated that 146,00(3 tons of wheat had been carried from Australia by the Common..woaith line of steamships. The average, rate of freight was £6 to the United Kingdom and £4 r 10s to Pacific ports. A' Commonwealth steamer was not chartered about September last to carry salt from India to South Africa at the rate of £lO pejf ton, nor had the vessel previously been chartered to carry cornsaeks to Australia during September at £4 per ton. There was no Blue Book rata for wheat from Australia to England. As high as £ll pet ton had been paid for wheat from Australia to Europe. Neutral tonnage was now asking j from Australia to United Kingdom £ls. j The freight on wool from Australia j,o ! England was 3id per lb. The Prime Minj ister -also stated that the whole of the 15 ships bought on behalf of the Commonwealth Government in 1916 had arrived in Australian waters prior to .August 25, 1917. They were now engaged carrying wheat. Up to the present the vessels of the line had made 27 voyages from Australia to England. The contracts for 53.500,0001 b of jam, ordered by the British and American Governments,- have been allotted to the various Australian States as follows:—Victoria, 23,370.0001 b; Tasmania, 18.000,0001 b, New South Wales, 10,500,0001 b ; Queensland. 1.250,0001 b; West Australia, 380,0001 b. Of the grand total, the contracts with the British (including the Indian) Government amounted to 15,500,0C01b. and with the American Government 38,000,0001 b. The price for all varieties of jam is 5s 3d f.o.b; a dozen lib tins. It is. stated that of thai contracts the Henry Jones Co-operative factories have secured orders for 45,750,0001 b. Replying to the criticism of the New South Wales Government concerning the question which it raised as to the advisa- ;■ bility of stock-raising in preference to Wneatgrowang, the Minister of Lands (Mr Ashford) 6aid that the Government did not desire the curtailment of the wheat areas. I The Government would welcome the maintenance of the present areas and their j increase if a reasonable guarantee could be : obtained that wheat farmers might ba i placed and kept in a stable position. That was a matter, however, for the Federal Government; A guarantee during the next two years would bo 'lmperative. Farmers in the district (states the Balclutha Free Press) are paying 2s an hour for skilled turnip-thinners. A large number of schoolboys are also at work. at 5a and 6s a day, and in many parts women are also helping. The rapid rise and the growth of th« [ freezing industry in Otago is to be seen in the remarkable number of fat sheep throughout the country (states the Clutha Leader). Everywhere there are hundreds, in somo places thousands, of the finest booking sheep that have been seen for many seasons. The high prices received tor frozen mutton are rapidly turning many districts from crop producing communities to pastoral grazing localities. Two Aberdeen-Angus cows, sent to an Aberdeen joint sale by the Earl of Rosebery recently, made 680 guineas and 560 guineas respectively. These prices are the nighesi ever paid for females of the breed in an open sale in the United Kingdom, Mr Malcolm. M.P., on the farm labour difficulty at the conference held at Balclutha- on Friday : It has been discovered by many farmers that labour could be secured by giving higher wages, but that meant simply robbing one's neighbour. It was getting labour at another's expense, and stealing the employees away. The sentiment seemed to find endorsement from the farmers present (says the Free Press). Foot rot has made its appearance this season in the sheep flocks of Southland to a greater extent than usualj and a farmer in the Roslyn Bush district states that fully 10 per cent, of his flock are suffering from the disease. The mild weather of late ha? been responsible for the spread of potato blight "in various parts of the district (reports the Ashburton Guardian). The crops eo far have not been attacked in a severe form, and some varieties have entirely escaped. The blight appears to have settled well into the tubers of the black leaf kidney variety. One family in Maniototo has successfully solved the labour problem. The father ia shearing, the mother drives the binder, and the children are stooging. * " The greatest grass season for 20 years," is the general opinion of that reliable person known as "the oldest inhabitant " (saya a Wairoa paper). Everywhere there is the same testimony—too much grass, and the farmers are now longing for a spell of dry weather to enable burning to be carried out. As abundance of star thistle was noticeable 'in tho Central Otago district by farmers' unionists who paid a visit last week (statos tho Clutha Leader). This is a plant peculiar to the locality, and, unlike the noxious Californian thistle, is said to be the salvation of the sheep farmer. It is generally found on