SOUTHLAND AGRICULTURAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3352, 12 June 1918, Page 9

SOUTHLAND AGRICULTURAL NOTES.

(From Oub Own Correspondent.) That we are getting right into winter is every day getting more evident. The last burst we had, with thunder and heavy hail ! showers, and with snow falling up couni try,' was fairly convincing. Such long; j spells of fine weather ore apt to make us believe we may expect nothing else, there- ! by deceiving ourselves and not preparing '■ sufficiently nor in good time for the stress | of winter conditions. The frosts have kept j away remarkably well, and the ground is ; not yet so heavily soaked as to retard I farming operations. Stubble ground and I whero turnips and rape had been eaten ! off are a little heavy, but the lea is in fine condition for early ploughing, and even the drain plough might be effectively used. Ploughing is now fairly general. When the three-furrow disc plough came generally into use to many it seemed an implement adapted for all kinds of ploughing. That notion, after some experience, nas now got fairly well exploded, and, instead of displacing the double-furrow plough, it 1* really an auxiliary, and can save a considerable amount of cultivation required by implements hitherto used. Some who did not really know what required used the dieo plough, which, after a few trials, they found would not do. It is a useful implement for second or third ploughing or cross-ploughing, and in 'tossing couch about. It makes cultivation more easy, and the ground does with less harrowing. It has an advantage inasmuch as the person working it does not have to follow it on foot, but rides on it. The double-furrow plough generally Is a good implement, and has lon»- held first place. Three and four-furrow ploughs have not yet been made to do the work so well under all or any conditions that may ba required. In these times when labour is scarce and wages high, labour-saving implements have to be resorted to. The time may not be very far distant when motor tractors may be as common as motor cars. Revolutionising methods of cultivation may not be far ahead of us _ either. There are ona or two things looming up which the more advanced in thought and enterprise and the most optimistic are seriously considering for the future development of the resources of Southland, Electric motivepower at present holds first place. We shall say nothing more of that, meantime, ! but may have occasion later, and with. j more reason to do so. There is another matter which is hanging over Southland and the rest of the Dominion likt a nightmare, and that is the Meat Trust. It is engaging _ the attention | of tho various Farmers' Unions, more so | than evening the mortgage tax. Some are I of the opinion that the buyers who hav« j been able to gj,vo bigger prices for wether* : and lambs than others are buying for the I trust, and that this is the thin end of the wedge to gain control. It seems impossible ; to get at the real state of affairs, and to ! verify or disprove some of the reports our* j rent. Lines of frozen mutton are sold and I resold often at very little profit, and any j firm may be buying without in any way | attempting to control the market. i Sinoe America has come into the market | as a large buyer of rabbitskins it may be helpful in expanding the rabbit industry. ; From various sources it is reported that j tinned rabbits are much valued by the men at the front, and as it is not much [ gone into, it might prove a valuable In* j dustry, which, if rightly developed, might I be a" great asset for the Dominion, and bunny a blessing in disguise. The rabbit I is at present a pest rather than an inI dustry, and in some districts they are far ! too numerous. Many who successfully en--1 gaged in rabbiting have gone to the front, ! and, ' as anyone may clearly see, much I may be left undone which cannot possibly I be overtaken, and neither the rabbit nor j the small-bird pest can be "properly attended to. The ditches cannot be pro- | perly cleaned, and drainage will be affected. The fences left un'trimmed and allowed to ; grow to unlimited will give greater shelter for birds and rabbits, and ! their numbers will considerably increase. ! It is where fences are badly kept that both rabbits and birds are a real nuisance. It is difficult to know to a certainty the b'fe3i method of killing- rabbita. Some believe in trapping, and nothing else j others as strongly in poisoning if gone ricrhtly about and at, as -they say, the proper time. The natural enemy in sufficient numbers and in open country on runs has been quite effective. There are many stations where very few rabbits, if any, are to be seen. They seem to have gone off, and in some instances at least followed up by the stoats, with 4he reuslt that the young, which oould not follow up, have been found left behind dead in large numbers. The result has been that those who got into such stations when thev seemed valueless have done well, there being now abundance of feed and stock doing remarkably well.

_ In some places ferrets have not been ecen {or a length of time, and very few weasels, buf stoats are fairly numerous. The trappers have invariably destroyed the ferrets, and tho stoats will kill weasels every ch-.nco they get. Tho stoats from their resorts do not como into contact wi'th tho trappers as do the others. In many parts of the country where rats at one timo were fairly numerous it is now a rare thing to coirw aoross any. This is, I think, lightly attributed to the stoats. Piles of hags containing either grain or grass seed may now (remain in the paddock, and not a single

bag be cut if stoats arc about. It used to bo very different when the rats and mice had it all their own way. They worked terrible destruction not in what they ate, but in what they wasted and destroyed. There is nothing special to note in the stock market, nor is there anything to cause any feeling of apprehension or dread of what the near future at least may bring, or any feeling of uneasiness of what tho result may bo when present values cannot bo maintained.