OUR CANTERBURY AGRICULTURAL BUDGET.

Otago Witness, Issue 3596, 13 February 1923, Page 12

OUR CANTERBURY AGRICULTURAL BUDGET.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) ANOTHER HARVEST INTERRUPTION. The path of ihe grain-grower at the present time is net strewn with roses. He has had a lot to contend with, and when harvesting waa going along merrily the weather must break again. This w r as at the week-end, when rather more than - a third of an inch of rain fell and wet the stooks through. Fortunately there was a good drying wind straight after the rain, which did not last 24 hours; but the wind gathered force and a strong nor’ ivest gale was the result, making carting rather difficult work; but. still the cutting of the ripening crops is proceeding, though the weather indications are far from encouraging and certainly are not of 1 lie kind to inspire confidence in the early future climatic conditions. Naturally, with the weather chopping and changing about, stookthrashing is not as popular as usual, and there are many more wheat stacks than usual dotting the countryside at the present time, and their number is being added to daily. On Thursday more settled weather came with scorching days. DOES WOOL CLASSING PAY? As a rule mere can he no question that the proper classing and preparation of wool for sale pays; but the tendency of late is for farmers to overclass, and every small clip is as- a rule divided into too many lots. Following the catalogue of a wool sale closely brings out many striking anomalies, and in numerous cases tho buyers, by the payments they make, express a very poor opinion of much of the farm classing. It is not only the small

man that is often ignored, but clips from sheds that employ a professional classer often show irregularities that indicate that a buyer has disregarded the appraising of tile wool by the man that has been paid to class it. Only at the last Christchurch sale there were striking instances of this occurring. Just a few of them picked at random from the catalogue might be quoted: Five bales of halfbred ewe. classed as A A, sold at 22jd, and 18 bales of halfbred ewe of the next classing sold at 24gd. In another clip seven bales of super halfbred sold at 21*d, three bales A A made and 13 bales of A made 21d, Three bales of the Qrst classing of a clip of halfbred hogget wool made 19ad, and four bales gf the same clip and the same description of wool made 19|d. On a buoyant market Buch occurrences are riot unusual, but a trip through the wool stores brings home to one that the splitting up of clips into too many lots is not desirable from the grower’s point of view. Many growers still object to the grouping' of their lots with others in order to keen them out of the ‘‘star” • lots. They evidently regard their brokers with some amount of suspicion: yet if they attended a big sale and waited to' see the “star” lots sold they would realise wlrat a restricted market their small lots meet with. When the “star” lots are reached the big buyers gather up their papers and leave the one and t*.o bale iots to the “nibblers.” LOWER WOOL PRICES. Tho Timaru wool sale reflected the change that has come over the Home wool market, and there were lower prices for the finer grades, which was. a reflex of the movement in London. The unsettled European situa tion also affected the market, and one German house that has purchased very freely at previous sales throughout the Dominion was not represented at the sale at all. Fortunately the lower grades of wool : were not affected, and with a change for the better in the European situation the market would in all probability swing the other wav again. STOCK MARKETS BUOYANT. Just where stock prices are going to stop is a problem for the farmer at the present time. With each week prices seem to go further and further ahead, and farmers that have to stock up with stores, whether they be ewes, wethers, or lambs, are compelled to pay very long prices, and where they are bought for fattening tile buyer has to pay a price new that leaves little margin between the outgoing at the present time and the prospective price as fats a month or so ahead. Store wethers are going up each week in an extraordinary manner. For instance, at the Addington sale on Wednesday a pen of wethers that were the more backward sorts of a large line were sold in the store pens. The pick of them were sold as ‘'fats.” The stores—and there was a considerable number of them —made lid less than the tops of the number that were drafted off for sale in the fat sheep section. A draft of two and four-tooth wethers from the Marlborough Sounds sold at 31s 4d in the store pens, and another lot of forward four and six tooth halfbred sheep sold at 33s Bd. Some forward two-tooths made 30s. Another notable sale was a line of four, six, and eight, toothed sheep just off the shears from Mount White, one of Canterbury's highest back country stations, and though they were big-framed, they did not carry much condition, and sold at 29s ldThey included a number of sheep with teeth that were commencing to spread. It is not only wethers, but ewes and lambs also that are moving up from week to week, and buyers of store lambs on Wednesday paid 27s 9d for a draft of Corriedale lambs. They were wethers, and were from the Glen Dhu flock. Many long prices wore paid for ewes. A nice pen of 70 four and six tooth sheep, well into the Romney made 41s. Some very small twotooth halfbred ewes sold at 37s 3d, and a fair line of good ordinary crossbreds, straight four-tooths, sold at 38s 9d. The plain ordinary ewe that the average farmer buys and holds for a year becomes dearer every week. LAMB PRICES WEAKEN. Early in the week there were many pessimistic reports circulated as to the London market so far as lamb was Concerned, and H Would appear that in some quarters a

concerted attempt was made to bear the market, but it did not have much effect. There was certainly tho cable from tho High Commissioner that the market was somewhat depressed, at the time the report left, but in spite of this the buyers competed fairly freely' for the small number of lambs that were available this week in the open markets, and from lOd to 10id was paid for good qualities, if price.s no not go back further than this farmers will not grumble, for they recognise that excessive prices in London only mean a restricted consumption. Mutton remains rather scarce in Canterbury, and 7d a lb was paid for good wethers at the sale this week. Bacon pigs have been slow to move, but l it is pleasing to note an improvement. From 6d to bid is the ruling price at the present time, though the buyers are inclined to negiect anything over 160’s. Beef is improving DEPLETED FLOCKS. Mr H. A. Knight, chairman of directors of the New Zealand Refrigerating Co., Ltd., at the annual meeting of shareholders this week, drew pointed attention to the depletion of the flocks of the Dominion. Mr Knight said that last year we exported 4f millions out of a total lambing of 10i millions. This, leaving only 5J millions for re-stocking and local consumption, means that we exported at least one million too many if we intend to maintain our flocks. This contention is borne out by The fact that there has been a reduction this year of practically a million. The slaughter of our ewe lambs has been excessive, and constitutes the most serious feature of this question. I recognise that the financial position is such that it is hardly reasonable to expect that ewo lambs should be held back at the present prices, and I also recognise the fact that no power but the economic factor of high prices for breeding ewes will bring about the desired result; but, nevertheless, the position as broadly set out cannot be too generally appreciated, in the hope that in every individual case as large a proportion as possible of the ewe lambs will be retained.