STOCK AND GRAZING NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3674, 12 August 1924, Page 13

STOCK AND GRAZING NOTES.

Weekly Stock Sales. Burnside, Wednesday*. Addington, Wednesday* Waiarek* Railway Juaotion, Tuesday*. Fortnightly. RiTersda'.e, Fridays Wallacetown, Tuesday*. Ashburton, Tuesday*. Heriot, Thursdays. Win too, Thursday*. Wyndham, Thursday*. Clinton, Thursday*. Balclutha, Friday*. Gore, Tuesday*. Monthly. Xdendale, Ist Monday. Palmerston, 4th dayVTintoa, 4th Tuesday Uataura, Ist Thursday Yokanui, 4th Monday.

Monthly (continued* Duntroon, Wedn*: iMj. Woodlands, 3rd W»d nesday. i Milton. 2nd Tuesday. Balfour, 3rd Thursday. Thornbury, Ist Friday. Duotroon, 2nd Wedne* day. Otantau, 2n<? Wednev day. Rivoradale, 3rd Friday Waikuka, laat Friday. Olydevale. last Tuesday Periodically at Advertised. r.umsden, klossburti Orepuki, Waimahaka Waikcoaiti, Elver ton, Ngupan, nnc Of ago Central Sale#

OTAGO. The -weather continues dry, with frosts at night, and rains would be welcomed by the majority of Otago settlers, if not too cold. The recent sale of the Mount Royal stock completes the elimination of all sentiment in connection with this well-known and favoured estate. The attendance on Friday last.was a striking testimony to its fame. Many were there who came to see the “old place” where they once worked, or knew the station in the early pioneering days when John Douglass reigned. It was a good sale, and a fine ending in fine weather. Breeding ewes—eight-tooth made 36s 9d to 50s 6d, the six-tooths 52s to 555, four-tooth 42s 6d to 50s, two-tooths 46s sd; the ewe hoggets 365. wether hoggets 26s 3d, two-tooth wethers 27s 3d." fotir "and sixtooths 345. Settlers on the recently sold blocks secured the bulk of the stock. The attendance at this sale must have ranged from one thousand to fifteen hundred interested visitors, who came from north, south, and west. Over 180 motor cars were parked close by. BURNSIDE MARKET. The yarding of 1801 fat sheen at Burnside, as against 2600 the previous week, proved fully adequate for a demand which at no time was acute. The quality erf- the entry ranged from medium to very fair, with some few pens of well-clad G'orriedale type of wethers. Ewes were in fair supply, but of not any particular merit for the most part: The demand was in the early stages of the sale somewhat nromising and in advance of last sale's values, but soon eased, and, with some fluctuation, ran out on a par with last week’s lower values. Wether mutton “on the hoof” may be quoted as up to 7ld per lb. The few fat hoggets sold well at 25s to 44s per head. An entry of 222 fat cattle included a fair number of well finished bullocks and heifers. It was a better sale all round, and gathered strength as it progressed. Opening at 10s in advance of last week’s Prices, this improved a further 15s per head, beef making to 39s per 1001 b. The store oattle —about 100 head—were of ordinary quality, comprising mostly old oorvra. A few station weanerj made 24s to

355. There were no mature steers penned, and cows sold on much the same basis as a week ago. An average entry of fat pigs met with a good demand, and values were fully maintained, baconers making to 8d and porkers to 9d per lb, with best stores selling freely. Indifferent weaners were not in request. NOrAh ISLAND STOCK VALUES. Values of sheep in the North Island indicate little change since last month. The pastures are in fair order, but no stock demand of any volume is apparent. In the Auckland province, at the Westfield market beef made to 28s per 1001 b, fairconditioned bullocks £5 to £6 ss, forward wethers 30s to 345, fair hoggets 21s to 245, yearling steers made from £2 to £2 7s, two-year-olds £3 to £3 ss, three-year-olds £3 15s to £4 53. In Palmerston North good four and five-year-old breeding ewes were sold at 27s to 345, medium hoggets 17s fid, culls from 8s 6d, good store wethers 29s to 325. spring calyers £5 to £7 10s, yearling dairy heifers £2 12s 6d. Best draught mares were sold at £55 to £llO at a clearing sale, and geldings £45 to £46. In the Wanganui-Feilding areas mixed young wethers made 30s 6d, mixed hoggets 21s to 24s 6d, culls 12s. In the Wairarapa forward wethers made to 31s, good four and five-year-old breeding ewes 30s to 32s 6d, old 22s to 255, hoggets 23s to 275, year and a-half steers to £2 15s, springing heifers £4 to £6. In Hawke’s Bay mixed hoggets made 20s to 23s 6d, medium in-lamb ewes (five-year-olds) 19s to 21s, good 295. mixed young ewes 29s 6d. dairy heifers £5 to £8 12s 6d. year-and-a-half steers £3 10s, two and a-half to £4 ss, best da : ry cows £7 to £l2. In Taranaki really good cows sell well, best grade heifers making £l7 to £lB per head. STOCK NOTES. Values of dry sheep are fully maintained, and good sorts of breeding ewes being in firm demand, with general all-round firmness for anything fat throughout Otago. Store cattle, however, are not in the picture except they are well forward and well bred. Mr W. N. Black, of Coldstream (Victoria) was elected president of the Commonwealth Clydesdale Horse Society for the ensuing year at the recent annual meeting in Melbourne. He has announced his intention of offering a trophy, valued at 100 guineas, for competition in the Clydesdale section at the Melbourne Royal under similar conditions to the Caw'dor Cup. The Sheep and Ram Fair Committee of the Canterbury A. and P. Society recommend that three judges be appointed for the C'orriedale section at their next fixture. At the annual sale of Ayrshire yearling bulls and heifers from the well-known herd of Mr Thomas Barr, Ilobsland, Monckton (Scotland), 19 yearling bulls averaged £4O, and four yearling heifers £4B. Of the bulls the highest price was obtained for Hobs-, land Advocate, which was bought by Mr Isaac Thomas, Boston (U.S.A.), for 120 guineas: whilst the second highest priced animal, Ilobsland White King, was secured bv Mr David Gibson for Mr Chisholm, Strathglass (U.S.A.), at 90 guineas. Other bulls made up to 54 guineas; whilst the best of the heifers. Bet 18th. went at 80 guineas to Mr A. Buchanan, Dunlop. f FOOT AND MOUTH DISEASE. The South Australian Advisory Dairy Board have received the following report from the Commonwealth Dairy Expert in regard to the importation of cattle from Channel Islands into Australia (says the Observer) : —With reference to the question of the importation of cattle from the Channel Islands into Australia, it appears to mo that, for a long time, this will be the only safe place in Europe from where Australian dairy farmers may purchase slud cattle. Foot and mouth disease is not under control in England, as is shown by the fact that there are 11 fresh outbreaks, and in new centres. Australia cannot successfully carry on the breeding of Jersey and Guernsey cattle without fresh importations, and the • Channel Islands are the natural source of supply. Tlie Veterinary Record (England) seems inclined to acoept the reported discovery of the organism responsible for foot and mouth disease. The organism is 0.1 microns long, and its presence is only de-

monstrated by photography. Professor Dahmer, of Berlin, has made cultures through 25 successive generations, and has then reinoculated a cow, and from the vesicles formed has caused typical foot and mouth disease in a cow. The cost of the present outbreak of foot and mouth disease in Great ilritain amounts to £3,274,600. The total number of animals slaughtered are: —Cattle, 104,076; sheep. 3.684 ; pigs. 48,000; go-ats, 128. In March last 215 outbreaks were reported, in April 63, and in May 63, thus showing some improvement. THE ROYAL. The following judges have been appointed for the first Royal Show: —Clydesdales: Mr John MacDonald, Timaru. Lincolns: Mr D. Kirkpatrick, Gisborne. Romneys: Air A. Matthews, Featherston. Milking Shorthorns: Air E. A. Washer, Okaiawa. Aberdeen Angus: Air J. Ogilvy, Master - ton. Lieutenant-colonel Caddy, of Tylden, Victoria, has agreed to judge the red Polls, whilst Air E. W. Oliver, of Chudleigh, Tasmania has agreed to act as judge of the Ayrshires. The Clydesdale classes are as follows: — Draught colt foaled on or after July 1, 1923;'draught colt foaled on or after July 1 1922; draught colt foaled on or after July 1, 1921; draught stallion foaled prior to Julv 1, 1921; draught filly foaled on or after July 1, 1923: draught fillv foaled on or after July 1, 1922; draught filly foaled on or after July 1, 1921; draught mare foaled prior to. July 1, 1921; draught mare in foal (to foal' before December 31, 1924) or with foal at foot; draught gelding, four years anjd over, to be shown without harness, champion Clydesdale sire and mare, to be selected from two-vear-olds and upwards. The following classes for the three beef breeds have been decided upon : BuU calved on or after Julv 1, 1923 ; bull calved on or after Julv 1, 1922; bull calved on or or after Julv 1, 1922; bull calved on or after July 1. 1921; bull, calved prior to July 1 1921. Heifer calved on or after July 1, 1923; heifer calved on or after July 1, 1922: cow calved prior to 1822—i.e three years old and upwards. Champion bull from two years old and upwards ; cnahipion cow or heifer from two years old and upwards. STOCK POISONED.. The Stefansson Expedition has met in Central Australia Professor Ewart, of Melbourne University, who has discovered the cause of extensive cattle losses in Springs district (states the Victorian A\ eekly Times). , . The deaths, according to the professor, are caused by a poisonous plant, which covers a large area. He has discovered at least five plants new to science. As soon as he had finished the journey from Oodnadatta, to Alice Springs, Professor Ewart, accompanied by Sergeant Stott, set out for the scene of the trouble. “We came across 1300 dead cattle, all in good condition, lying about the Taylor end,” he stated. “We did not know if the cause of death had been disease, bad water, or poison plants. “Captain Bishop came down from Darwin to help with the investigations, and this w r as the .first time I had seen him since he had been one of my students at the Melbourne University some 15 years ago. When we met, Captain Bishop had brought with him a herd of stock from Banka Banka Station, and they were all wild, so we had an exciting time until they got a bit tamer.” The two scientists then started work entirely in the field, without conveniences of any kind. “We began by getting positive results,” the Professor explained. “Then we tried to conclude them by driving the cattle through the poison area without allowing them to eat suspected plants. This was successful. “Then we drove them back, and after some difficulty got them to eat the plant, then drove them right down the road like ordinary cattle, till they began to drop. As they fell we made post-mortems.” Professor Ewart and Captain Bishop are now proud that, where some drovers had lost 20 to .30 per cent, of cattle, they lost 100 per cent. They have sent large quantities of the plant material to the Melbourne University, where Dr Young, bio-chemist, is experimenting to see if his results conincide with theirs.

Meanwhile, in his tent, the professor is working cut some further problems. He says the only way to get rid of the poison plant is to clear the track, and to give the drivers the exact description of the poison. The plant—a small bush 2ft or 3ft high—if of a brownish colour, with a red flower. This same bush is found in other places over all the Northern Territory. During his wanderings, Professor Ewart, who did work on the flora of Australia for the Commonwealth Government, has found some old species that he had seen before only as dried specimens, growing wild. He is happy because he has found at least five, and possibly ten, plants new to science. HORSE VERSUS TRACTOR. Farmers should hesitate before allowing themselves to be talked into disposing of their horses, writes an admirer of the farm horse. The chief argument in favour of tractor use seems to be the saving in hay consumption, but let us remember the sale of a well-bred colt or two will cover the cost of a great deal of hay, and tractors have no foals. And as to the drudgery of feeding and attending to our horses, no man worthy of a place on the land begrudges his animals any attention they need. Farmers, in listening to glib talk of the horse-power of various tractors, should know _ that the term horse-power is merely technical, and that a 20 h.p. engine will not necessarily do trie work of 20 horses. As a result of a long series of experiments, conducted under the auspices of the Horse Association of America by various institutions, an instrument has been perfected with which the actual tractive strength of horses can be measured. As a result it was discovered that a pair of draught horses at the New York show developed over 27 horse power. So it may be taken that an ordinary good heavy draught horse should be able to exert at least 8 to 10 technical horse-power. No one who has at heart the interest of the man on the land would deny the tractor its place in the economy of primary production, but some people apparently wish to convey the impression that this is essentially a mechanical age, and that the day of the horse is past. That time will never come —tinned milk is a useful standby, but it will never displace the original article. In America, where the tractor is produced and sold without the added price due to freight and duty, and where fuel for the tractor is only a few pence a gallon, not only farmers, but also

city firms, are discovering that the tractor must be considered only as an adjunct to the horse. This is what the chairman of the delivery cost committee of the Wholesale Grocers’ Association in America says about horses ;—Some years ago it was felt that the gasolene truck offered the cheapest form of transportation, and its use largely supplanted the horse-drawn vehicle. To put the matter mildly, the wholesale grocer has found the cost of operating gasolene trucks has just about busted him. The New York Port authority reports that 72 jter cent, of all vehicles loading at its railway station are horse-drawn. THE CLYDESDALE STUD BOOK. The Clydesdale Stud Book, volume 46, embodying a wealth of detail of interest to breeders the world over, lias come to hand. The 1924 work contains a total of 2985 entries consisting of: Additional produce, 2047; mares and produce, 769; and stallions, 169. The registered numbers of mares are brought up from 54265 to 55033, and of stallions from 20839 to 21007. _ Breeders have here a ready reference, while its accuracy can be vouched for seeing that Air Archibald MacNeilage is the secretary. Two fine portraits are reproduced one being the stallion Elashdale (20576), which went to Australia, and was the Cawdoi Cup winner last year, and the other, Raysun, the mare which won the Cawdor Cup at the Inverness “Highland” show in 1923. The registered office of the secretary is 93 Hope street, Glasgow. IRRIGATION AND AFFORESTATION. TO THE EDITOR Sir,—l read the interesting contribution written by J. C. Smith, of Lovell s Ilat, in the Otago Witness regarding irrigation and afforestation and the shortage of water in creeks. My experience bears out his statements. Where there is a good fall provide a “get-away” for the water, and keep it on the move. Where there is but little grade on fairly good land, it the water is put into furrows to keep it moving the results will be good and economical. Where the land is poor and gravelly, but with plenty of fall, you cannot damage it with water. Where the topography of the land is uneven and flat the only remedy is piping, and that, is possible only for the rich man. \\ here one has only a moderate capital, and pays so much for water arid labour, the 1J^ e is too high. The man on the land who compares his labour with what is going in the country or town stands in the fair way of being “ snuffed out. As loi afforestation, a reasonable time to affect the climate would be 100 years. I know that when fluent writers put on -a:-line gloss, and use technical terms, they attract the public, and give it what it wants —interesting excitement. There are good results from irrigation when properly used with a good fall. There is little use my Faying: more on the subject except to point out the advantages of a cloudless sky and hot sun. “That is all the truth of the case,” as the man told his lawyer, “ and ye can fit the lees in yersel . —I am, etc., _ August 4. J.a.