SOUTHLAND AGRICULTURAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3595, 6 February 1923, Page 12

SOUTHLAND AGRICULTURAL NOTES.

LFeom Our Own Correspondent.) We have been reading about storms, floods, landslides, etc., in other parts of the Dominion, while we have been basking in summer sunshine. The weather with us has been perfect, and shearing lias been carried on under more favourable conditions during the past week than during any other period of the season, yet here we are into February and there are still numbers of unshorn sheep to be seen in the paddocks. The ryegrass harvest is in full swing, and good crops are the order of the day. This is a crop vyhich seems to be favoured more in certain localities than in the best grazing parts of the province. Round about South Hillend—otherwise the •‘“Turi”—Wairio, Wreys Bush, and down over the ridges between Otautau and Waianiwa there are crops of fine, hard “shoity” seed grown on land which is not adapted for dairying. The difficulty on some of the heavy land is that in a moist season of extra growth like ihe present one Ihe grass frequent.ly gets down end twisted, with the result that harvesting is difficult and expensive, and the seed is usually a poor sample. This year we have a big area of oars down and badly twisted on the heavy land, and as the crop is still in the green stage it means extra work and very little reeompence for it. Lambs are now being put on rape to falten, and there is an abundance of ihe crop all over the province. This is fortunate, as although we have had a great season of feed the fat lamb buyers complain of getting a very small percentage of lambs direct oft' the ewes. With the prospects of good prices continuing and the good crops of rape and early turnips, there is almost certain to be record numbers of lambs exported during the forthcoming season. There is still a ceitain amount of trouble with the butchers at the freezing works. They insist on Ihe dismissal of the men who stepped into the breach and finished the killing last year. The employers very rightly refuse to do this, and it is to be hoped that they hold out on this point. This holding up cf an important industry at critical periods must he stopped, and the most effective wav of doing this is having a “fight to a finish” early in the season. Young farmers should volunteer and learn the killing business. Apart- from the importance of I heir thus being able to effectively cheekm»te agitators and convince butchers that their .services are not altogether indispensable to the carrying out of our meat export trade, a knowledge of the butchering business will he found very valuable to Ihe young farmer in after life. Travelling round ihe province in a season like fhe present one cannot help being struck with the area: cf good land wasted on our road lines. With very rare exceptions, our roads are a chain wide and ibis is Quite nnnecc®«»ry except adjacent to piain centres. There a>e hundreds cf aeres of good feed at the rn'ese. t going to waste on the road'-- of Southl-t-d J,, some of our outlviii" dijrfGets we have miles of roads two chain* wide, whi-h means ( hat. one and a-balf obams of, in roan** instances, first-class land i« lying waste. Of course, xv Pen these roads were Su* land wn* cheap, and there were more h-V mobs of sheen travelling. that at the time if would have seemed f'd*e economy to mu-tall the space for Irsffin but now when land and its products """ hi>di in price in cldsefysettled districts tin's wace is •. runt ter which is worthy of consideration by “ihe poweis that he.” Our first wool sale is over. ;n ,d . highly satisfactory one ■'* was. For coo i* paid ns to lie fate. Wool is really the eijy one of our farm products which is sold under competition from buyers from over rffe world, vet there ere always some aaemslir? in prices paid for sir»H«r classes A leading breeder and well-known iudge who makes a point of personally classing and gelling un his wool to the best advantage was asked to attend to 'be olin of bis neighbour. who w»s ill. TTjs instructions were to simply roll and bale it without classing nr skirting. The sheep were a bougbt,-in lot of mixed breeding, and hi* own were evenly-bred Roninevs. vet at the sale thin clip only made a fraction over that of hi«

neighbour. When the “pace” of wool buyers is considered this is easily understood. Take, for instance, a line of ten bales with an average of fifty fleeces to the bale. The buyers will probably only see at most two of the 500 fleeces, and on the quality of these they base their valuation. Even the very best of our crossbred flocks are somewhat mixed in type, and in nothing more than in wool. The buyers knowing this gamble on the odd fleece they see, being a fair sample of the 10t.,, though it has a chance of being the best or the worst of the lot. Lamb prices are high with us. but complaints are general about the disparity between our prices and what is ruling for the north. Mr Adam' Hamilton, member of the Meat Board, in his address on the meat pool scheme, explained that northern settlers had the advantage of being earlier in the market, and said that Canterbury was usually quoted yd or §d per lb over what, was produced in Southland, but at present Addington quotations are lid and lyd over our prices. This induces a suspicion among farmers that we are up against a ring or combine in the_ trade. Canterburv undoubtedly can beat us in having big lines of neat carcases bred from Southdown and English Leicester rams, and, though we beat them in weights, there is no doubt about their lambs being better sellers than ours. There should not, however be more than. sav. yd to Id per lb difference in price, nor has there been until this season, so that we have really a germane cause of complaint. With reference to the time of opening the killing season, this rests largely with farmers themselves, and there is no reason why a big percentage of our lambs should not be ready to kill early in January. It is mei-elv a matter of providing early spring feed for the ewes.