STOCK AND GRAZING NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3556, 9 May 1922, Page 11

STOCK AND GRAZING NOTES.

Weekly Stock Sale*. Burnside, Wednesdays. Addington, Wednesdays. Waiareka Hailway Junction, Tuesdays. * Wallacetowu, Tuesdays. Fortnightly. Biv€T6dale, Fridays. Ashburton, Tuesdays, fieriot, Thursdays. Winton, Thursdays. Wyndham, Thursdays. Clinton, Thursdays. Balclutha, Fridays. Gore, Tuesdays. Monthly. I'almerston, 4th Thursday. Winton, 4th Tuesday.

Monthly (continued). Duntroon, 2nd Wednesday. Woodlands, 3rd Friday Milton, 2nd Tuesday. Balfour, 3rd Thursday. Thornbury, Ist Friday. Duntroon, 2nd Wednesday. Otautan* 2nd Bfiday. Riversdale, 3rd Friday. Waikaka, last Friday. Olydevale, last Tuesday. Periodically as Advertised. Lumsden, Mossburu, Orepuki, Mataura, Waikcuaiti, Eiverton, Ngapara, and Otago Central Sales.

OTAGO. The weather in Otago, although threatening at times, keeps up wonderfully well, and generally rural matters are “not so bad.” A spell of real sunny weather would be appreciated no doubt, but so long as farm work is not held up we should not growl. The writer tenders thanks to the Strath Taieri A. and P. Association for their invitation to be present at their 21st anniversary reunion of members on the 12th inst. BURNSIDE MARKET. The yarding of fat sheep totalled 2007, as compared with 2878 the previous week, the quality ranging from fair to good. There was a good general demand by both exporters and butchers. Values of heavy wethers appreciated 9d a head, the proportion being small, but other wethers and ewes (a fair number of the latter being penned) were unchanged. Mutton realised dose up to.4Jd per lb. The entry of fat lambs numbered 1208 as against 986 at last sale, the quality being only fair. Prices were hack on last week’s rates fully f-d per lb, or, say, 2s to 3s a head, many lambs making a top of 8d per lb, or rather more than exporters were prepared to pay. The fat cattle entry totalled 296 as against 310 last sale, the quality being for the most part good to choice. Values of last week were barely obtainable at any part of the sale, and tended to lower prices. A number were passed, cows being very hard to sell. Although a top of 22s 6d per 1001 b was secured here and there, prices were some shillings lower per head on the bulk of the entry. About 100 head of store cattle met with a dull demand, the medium quality evoking but slight interest. A feiw pens of moderately-bred three-and-a-half-year-old steers in very fair order were passed at £5 ss, a pen of goodoonditioned mixed steers and heifers, 18 months old, made £2 7s, and cows and oddments about last week’s rates. Fat pigs were cheaper by 5s a head, and small sorts, although somewhat slack at ppening, finished with a fair demand. ADDINGTON YARDS. The yarding of fat sheep was a large one at Addington, the proportion, of wethers being better than of late, and the quality generally being wide. There was a good sale for all classes, particularly ewes of a freezing grade. Some 6100 fat'lambs of mixed quality evoked a fair demand, but on a lower basis than the previous week; but there was a complete clearance at rates up to 8d per lb. Store sheep met with a brisk demand, ewes and wethers being very firm at recent rates, but lambs were slightly easier. The entry included a number of sheep from the West Coast and Nelson, and there was a good clearance. The yarding of fat cattle was much the Same as at last sale, but there were rather more prime heifers forward. There was a good demand for finished animals, beef making to 30s per 1001 b. The store cattle forward were of fair tj 7 pe and n nmerous The demand was fairly animated, and values were better than has been the case tor quite a while.

Owing to fat pigs being in over-supply, prices were irregular; but stores sold well, and weaners met rather an improved demand NORTH ISLAND STOCK VALUES. Generally there is a more optimistic tone displayed in the various stock markets of the North Island for all good grades of store sheep, but cattle prices are still a source of worry to producers, who would fain see them appreciate after being practically neglected for months. In the Auckland province choice boef at the Westfield market sold at up to 24s 6d per 1001 b, with medium cow quality as low as 12s 6d. Forward steers made £4 15s to £5 7g 6d, forward wethers 17s'6d to 19s 6d, forward lambs 12s to 14s, backward from 9s 6d, and good-quality heifers £5 10s to £7 15s. In Poverty Bay store wethers sold to 19s 9d, but cattle business is still dull, and prices much the same as a week ago. In the Wairarapa recent quotations are maintained. In Taranaki the position., in respect to stock generally calls for no comment beyond saying that values indicate no falling off since last report. In Hawke’s Bay store wethers realised from 18s to 20s, lambs 11s 6d to 15s, culls from 5s 6d, mixed young in-lamb ewes 18s to 22s 6d, two-and-a-half-year-old steers £3 10s to £4 14s, three-and-a-half-year-olds to £5 10s, and two-year-old heifers £2 10s to £5. BALC’LUTHA-CLINTON STOCK SALES. Some twelve to fifteen thousand sheep were yarded at Balclutha, half the entry being “fats.” There was a good demand, competition of exporters being based on apparently round 8d per lb, and there was a good sale. Four and six-tooth store wethers, in fair to forward condition, realised from 19s to 24s 9d, good rape lambs 16s 6d to 20s 6d, fair ewe lambs (open woolled) 15s Bd, cull lambs (mixed sexes) 7s 6d to 11s 6d, old ewes 7s 6d, 12s, 14s, according to condition, extra good sound-mout-h ewes 225. A line of fair two-tooth ewea were passed at 18s. It was considered that, in perhaps with sympathy with the weakening in the fat lamb prices, that rape lambs Vere easier by Is a head compared with prices ruling a fortnight ago. About 100 head of cattle were penned, but prices indicated no improvement At Clinton some five to seven hundred sheep, chieflv lambs, elicited prices on a parity with those secured at the Cluth-a the same week, and all were sold. PALMERSTON STOCK SALE. The monthly stock sale was held on t be 2nd, when there was a very big yarding of sheep and a small one of cattle. Prices for sheep were good, being in advance of those at the last sale, but the demand for cattle was poor. Pigs brought much better money than at recent sales. STOCK NOTES. Stock are doing well in Otago, thanks to the capital weather experienced, which has permitted of general farm work being pushed along. In so far as sheep are concerned, ewe values remain very firm, both for fat and breeding ewes. There are always buyers of wethers about, and rates are much the same as a week ago, whjle_ fat lambs appear to have been checked in their upward trend of values. Still, at about_ 8d per lb it is not anticipated that graziers will complain. The fact that freight charges on beef have been considerably reduced is so much to the good, but one cannot forget that even yet slaughter-yard Costs to the selling market are about double _ pre-war days. The demand for store cattle is not exciting in this province, although northwards good sorts of heifers have inquiry. The results of the educational propaganda of the Department of Agriculture are amply illustrated by the statistics available (said the officer in charge of the Pig Division in conversation with a Dominion reporter). “This propaganda has taken the shape of lectures to returned soldiers at the* experimental farms, to the annual schools of farmers, and on tho farms in various districts,” said the officer. “Look at the results. We have practically covered the North Island_ in our tour of lectures, and the result is shown by an increase in the number of swine in the last two years of 98.000 in the North, as compared with 16,000 in the South Island. Wo are now centering our efforts on the South Island, and are confident of the same relative increase. _ A remarkable anomaly in our statistics is .the smallness of the increase in swine in Southland, which is a dairying district.” The gate receipts at the Royal Centenary Show, Sydney, totalled £36,596, as against £31,790 last year, an increase of £3806. The” total attendance was 508,100, an increase of 35,000 over last year. At the Sydney Show F. S. Falkiner and Sons (Ltd.) scored heavily in. Clydesdale mares and fillies from their Wigiewa stud. The first prize in the class for mares four years old and over fell to them for Lady Ida, bred by J. Ewan, of Drummond, New Zealand, by Abbot (imp.) out of Rosie

O’Grady. The New South Wales Department of Agriculture won second prize with Esmeralda, bred at the North Bangaroo Stud Farm, by Allandale , (imp.), dam Esmer (imp.). W. M. Black’s Princess Bute, bred by G. T. Chirnside, Lilydale, Victoria, by Shanter (imp., now in Otago, New Zealand) out of Audrey Bute, was third. In the class for mares three years and under four years Widgiewa Donna Roma took first place, and was also adjudged champion Clydesdale mare, and awarded tho special medal of the Clydesdale Horse Society of Great Britain and Ireland. This mare was bred by F. S. Falkiner and Sons (Ltd.), but had been sold to Gillis and MGrath, who exhibited her. She is by Baron Belmont (imp.) out of Tea Rose. The Weekly Courier says that Senator J. F. Guthrie, of Corriedale Park, Wagga, has just executed the first order which has ever been given to Australia for Corriedale sheep for British East Africa, and is shortly shipping six Corriedale rams. The breeder who has made this purchase is an old Australian pastoralist of wide experience, who states that he finds the merinos too small and the fleeces too fine and thin in that country, and adds that, in his opinion, Corriedales are the sheep required. Senator Guthrie has recently supplied repeat orders for Corriedale rams to U.S.A. and Japan,- the Government of the latter country having for three years running bought extensively from the Corriedale Park Stud. The stud Jersey herd owned by Mr Geo. Birdsall, of Woodside Park, Berry, Tasmania, was sold recently at auction. the champion cow Vasilika XI was secured by Messrs Lyon and Kerr of ‘Ranyule, Heidelberg, Victoria, at 240 gs Mr C. L>. Lloyd, of the “Glen Iris” Jersey Stud, Caulfield, Victoria, purchased the imported oows Petune’s Gipsy, 82-1, gs, and Vasilika (imp.) at 175 gs. The imported bull Benetictine’s Nobleman, now 11 years old, realised 70gs, and the imported bull Goldfinder 55gs. °A three-months-old bull calf from Vasilika (imp.) went to Mr D. B. Lynch, of MTvee’s Hill, Casino, at 57igs. At a sale of pedigree hackneys at Lacey, near Dorking, Surrey,* in March last, a. portion of Mrs Van Hattum’s famous stud was sold. Twenty-three head realised £2550. an average of over £llO each. The top price paid was IOOOgs fo-r Glanavon Regal a bay gelding under 15 hands bought by tire Chester breeder Mr A. Maitland. At the Aberdeen-Angus sales at Aberdeen in March last 600 gs was paid for the champion bull Mulben Peerless, and for 417 head the gross average was £3B 8s 9d, and the total amount realised £16,028 15s 6d ; in 1921, 400 head totalled £25,734 9s Od; in 1920 £27,534 3s Od. The 417 head was made up as follows:—362 bulls, 4 cows, 51 yearling heifers. . , A memorandum issued by the. English Ministry of Agrioulture says: —It is impossible t.o estimate exactly the total cost of the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, but it is not anticipated that it. will amount to more than £1,000,000, of which one-half will be provided from Imperial funds, and the remainder from local taxation accounts, spread over the ratepayers of Great Britain. The forty-third 2000 gal British Friesian is Beccles Cynthia (the property of Mr J. C Bailey, of New Park, Trentham, Staffordshire). This cow has given to date 20,1261 b of milk in 305 days, her average butter-fat percentage being 4.47. Accordingly she has produced in that time 10581 b of butter. The forty-fourth 2000 gal British Friesian cow is the seven-year-old Bulkeley Buttercup, in the Eversley herd, belonging to Mr J. P. Fletcher, of Sherburn-in-Elmet, Yorks. The yield of this cow to date is 2000 gal in 355 days. The Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics, referring to buffaloes in the Northern Territory, says that at one time vast herds spread throughout Melville Island and over the whole of the Coburg Peninsula, the coastal lands east of Van Diemen Gulf, and the areas on the east and south of Alligator River. Buffalo hunters have, however, for many years been shooting them indiscriminately merely for the sake of the hides, and they are now confined to a small strip of coastal country on the mainland between the South Alligator and the Adelaide Rivers and to Melville Island. Their present number is estimated at only 20.000 head. Unfortunately, the buffalo herds, apart from tho ravages caused by hunters, suffer greatly from dingoes and other wild dogs, and it is estimated that 50 pet cent,, of the calves dropped are thus destroyed. THE NEW ZEALAND SHORTHORN HERD BOOK. Volume XVIII of the New Zealand Shorthorn Herd Book, 1922, came to hand last week, and, as usual, is replete with informative matter in connection with the year’s dealings in pedigree stock of this popular breed, including the awards in respect to tho allotment of shields for the champion Shorthorn hulls at various shows in New Zealand. The president for the year 1921-22 is Mr R. E. Alexander, of Canterbury Agricultural College, with Mr

Alex. Hunter, of Taranaki, as vice-presi-dent-. The conditions of entry of cattle to the Herd Book are fully set out, and generally its compilation shows evidence of the lively interest of breeders and their faith in the future progress of the New Zealand Shorthorn breed of cattle in this Dominion. DEATH OF MR GEORGE A. FERGUSON, A NOTED BREEDER. A Clydesdale breeder, general agriculturist, and public man of great distinction, passed away recently in Mr George A. Ferguson, Surradale, Elgin. Tall, stalwartlooking. and fresh-coloured, the deceased gentleman w’as probably less robust than ho looked. Farming fully 800 acres as tenant and owner; possessing one of the largest studs of Clydesdale horses in-exist-ence; running an extensive and highlyspecialised dairy business; and farming in accordance with the most advanced methods, it might he supposed that he was fully employed. But- he was a master in tho sphere of organisation. He selected and contrived to keep the very best men for heads of departments, and in his own nature he had not only the strength, force, and reliability of character which always commands respect; he had besides the generosity and sweet reasonablenes which ensures pleasant relationships and smooth working. As president of the Morayshird Farmers’ Club, and of the Scottish Chamber of Agriculture, and the Clydesdale Horse Society; director of the Highland Society; adviser to the Ministry of Food; agricultural arbiter; judge at shows; and frequent consultant, Mr Ferguson led a busy life, and he overtook an immense amount of work without ever appearing to be in a hurry. JJr Ferguson was a horseman, but, like his friend, the late Mr William Taylor, he never came quite under the designation of “horsey man.” In a crowd which thought, spoke, and breathed of horses he preserved a certain amount of philosophic detachment. Courteous and urbane in every company, he had just the slightest hint of dignified aloofness in a general throng. Surrounded by his intimates he was quietly charming. Many years ago Mr Ferguson had striking success in the Sir Hugo line of Clydesdale stallions through. Allandale. That induced him to register the suffix “Dale,” which has become so familiar in the showyards on account of the prize-winnings of such horses as Ardendale, Victordale, Premierdale, Silverctale, and others. As an advocate of size and weight and as exhibitor of lorry type animals— Phillipine and Dunure Kaleidoscope among the rest—the departed gentleman did not always receive his deserts. Too often the fancy showyard cult proved overstrong for him, but he held on his course without a trace of bitterness,_ and recently he must have seen that his ideals were gaining. Mr Ferguson, who was 59 years of age, is survived by his wife and one daughter. FARMERS VERGING ON BANKRUPTCY. LAND VALUES. Many farmers are on the verge of bankruptcy, according to evidence given in the Arbil ration Court at Wellington the other day by Mr W. D. Hunt. Mr Hunt was questioned at length by Mr J. M'Combs, the principal representative of tile employees. Mr M'Combs asked if Mr Hunt was aware that tho farmers approached Parliament last year and said that their difficulty was that at the high prices they had to pay for land they could not make it pay. .Mr Hunt; That is one of their difficulties. Mr M'Combs : What caused the increase in land values? Mr Hunt: There was no rise in value between the beginning of the war and the ,pnd of it. The great rise took place after the end of the war. That was caused partly by the Government purchasing eighteen to . twenty millions of land for returned soldiers and upsetting the market; and a great, deal of the rise was caused by the inflated value of all products in the world’s markets. The President of the Court (Mr Justice Frazer) : In other words, we have been capitalising on inflated values. fill- M'Combs: When did the Government start purchasing land? Mr Hunt: They purchased a little during the war, but did not purchase on a large scale until after the war, about 1917. Mr M'Combs: Then why an increase in values from 228 millions to 251 millions before the Government came on the market, at all? Mr Hunt: That might be Gove'mraent taxation values, but not, sale values. Mr M'Combs: Would not the farmers bo relieved best by a reduction in the value of land rather than by a reduction in tho amount of wages? Mr Hunt: If you reduced the value of land below what it was in 1914 you would reduce production. Mr M'Combs: I cannot see that —same land, same productivity. Mr Hunt: My reason is this. The lands of New Zealand vary enormously in quality

and in climatic conditions. If we take our rich lands with good climates, their grazing capacity is the finest in the world. Nothing else anywhere can touch, them. They graze stock in great quantities all tha year round without any winter feed, and the only expense is that of looking after the stook. That land is very valuable. On other lands much money is needed for keeping down Weeds and other growths and for winter feed. The point I wish to make is, that the land only rises m value because the profits aro greater, and that enable® other land to be brought into occupation. Every tall in land throws out of cultivation a great deal of second and third-class land. If our first-class land became worth only £2O, than a great deal of our second and third-class land could not be occupied at all, and productioa would fall off. Mr Hunt said that at present there were really no land values. The President: No. They are papej values. Mr Hunt: If the value of rich-land was forced down to £2O an aero, the second and third-class land would have to go out o£ occupation. Tho President: That is that those that are on the margin would be forced over the margin. Mr M'Combs: I don’t want to force down the value of land, but the prices. The President: Do the present prices of tho land bear a correct relation to the present prices obtained for the products of the' land? Mr Hunt: They did before the war, but if the present prices continue a great deal of New Zealand land will be worth nothing. The President: Who is buying land today? Mr Hunt: Generally the mortgagee. The President: Do you know of any sales that could be takein as a fairly good indication. Mr Hunt indicated that he could not. The President: However, we all agree that the present paper values are ingMr M'Combs: The farmer has to pay interest on those inflated values. His difficulty is not because of wages charges, but because of capital charges. Mr Hunt: The people who contracted to pay those high charges already have gone out. Mr M'Combs: Not all. Mr M'Combs: You say the price of produce i s fixed by the world’s markets. If that is so, how is a reduction of wages in New Zealand going to affect the cost of living in New Zealand? Mr Hunt: Because it will reduce tha cost of a number of services. Mr Bishop: Can you give any information as to the tendency of prices within the nuext 12 months? . Mr Hunt: It is more difficult to give it for 12 months than for a longer time ahead, because things are so unsettled i ust now. If you take over a longer time, it is almost certain New Zealand prices will fall lower than they are to-day.