OUR CANTERBURY AGRICULTURAL BUDGET.

Otago Witness, Issue 3714, 19 May 1925, Page 20

OUR CANTERBURY AGRICULTURAL BUDGET.

(Fbom Our Own Correspondent.) WEATHER VERY CHANGEABLE. Altogether the week gone by has been a fairly good one from the point of view of weather conditions. It has varied a good deal, with some cold nights, but the conditions are seasonable, and the latter part of the week has been mild, with a suggestion of impending rain, which has, however, kept off. For the time being it is not needed, as the rainfall is well above the average for the months which have gone by of the present year. Many of the dairying folk are already short of feed, and it is noticeable that a good deal of hand-feeding is being done now, so that it is iikely that stocks of supplementary feed will be short before the grass comes in the spring. Canterbury dairy farmers as a body do not realise the necessity of making provision for winter feed on as liberal a scale as should be done. THE WOOL POSITION. Wherever farmers have gathered this week, when other overshadowing events had been disposed of, the report* of the London wool sales and the unsatisfactory position of the wool market was the topio of conversation. In the South Island the majority of farmers w r isoly accepted the good prices when they were going in the Dominion sales. There were a few who shipped, but not many, so that the present position has an interest for the great majority only in so far as it will influence the market in November next, when the new clip is offered to the buyers from abroad. The lack of stability in regard to wool values is at least disconcerting, as the mercurial propensities of the chief Dominion product naturally react upon land values, and, what is even more important, upon the very necessary credit which it is essential the farming community should have in order to carry on. The most optimistic farmer did not opine that the high prices which ruled through the first two months of the wool season were the rates likely to be obtained for wool in the future. There was then the effect of the speculator appa rent in the competition, but the way in which leading Bradford houses settled down and bought at the high prices after the first sale or so in the Dominion led one to assume that the buyers for the Bradford trade knew something more than they appear to have done. Tne Bradford houses have ever been conservatively inclined, but on this occasion, if the position is accepted as it is represented by them at the present time, the trade appears to have been led away by the speculative side of the business. This is the funeral of Bradford. Naturally they will endeavour to recoup any losses they may make upon their purchases in the season ahead. Hie point which the Ne w Zealand grower is likely to find some solace in is that the opening of the wool season is at least six months off, and that six months has worked some wondrous changes in the trado m the past. It is too much to hope that figures will rule as high as they were at the end of last year, but there is no reason for pessimism or a fear that wool is likely to go below the cost of production again. Statistically wool is in a sound position. UNCHANGED PRICES FOR STORE SIIEEP. Practically the only difference the drop in the price of wool has made in the stock markets is a lowering of the meat prices as set by the meat exporting schedules. A week ago the altered prospect for wool has met wifh a reduction of a pound in the price of fat lambs on the hooks and a corresponding alteration for mutton. On Wednesday, at the Addington sale there were fat slock buyers who exceeded the schedule price to some extent, but it was a small fraction. What was rather striking was the fact that the buyers of store sheep did not pay any attention to the fall in wool when assessing the values of sheep they purchased, and this goes to emphasise the shortage of sheep there has been in the Canterbury province. The shortage is beyond the province, for in recent weeks many line* of sheep have been bought in Addington and railed south as far as Winton t which is well into Southland. Higher prices are ruling down there than in Canterbury, due to the feed position in the south being more satisfactory. Usually the movement of sheep v the other way, and Canterbury draws sheep from Otago and Southland, but higher rates for ewos and hoggets enable these classes to bo bought at Addington and sent south at a profit after paying railage for 300 miles ar thereabouts. Strong woolled ewes are the sort of sheop favoured* for the Southland districts, and prices have been

paid at Addington lately which would necessitate £2 being received for the ewes if the buyer i 9 to recoup the outlay, with commission and railage, let alone a small profit. Tile state of the market at the present time emphasises how badly the Canterbury province would be off for .sheep had not the shipments from Poverty Bay this year ran close to six figures. Although the Romney cross ewe is not popular with many farmers of the Canterbury Plains, the large number was readily absorbed, and seemingly if some of the shipments had been sent through direct to Southland saleyards a good market would have been found for them. THE BENEFITS OF RAILWAY COMMUNICATION. One thing which the farmers of the West Coast appreciate in connection with the Arthur’s Pass tunnel is the fact that •stock can be railed direct to Addington without undue loss. With the advance of dairying upon the Coast the breeding of pigs is making headway, and recently the Coast has been sending forward fairly large consignments of pigs to Addington, and the prices are very satisfactory, compared with what had to be accepted before the existing communications were available. Farming upon the West Coast has been somewhat slow in making a progressive move, but there is nothing to complain of in connection with the quality of the baconers which come from the Coast districts. They are well bred and well finished, and command a good figure. Probably the most serious drawback to them is that the farmerg are disposed to make them too heavy, so much so that many maiden sows and barrows go in the chopper division, which is a waste, for they do not command anything near the money which is available for baconers up to 150-lFOlb. The price of bacon at Addington at the present time ranges from 6gd to 7£d, and for pork from 7d to B£d. It is surprising how fat pigs are consigned to Addington. A little time ago there were several consignments received from as far away as Dargaville, and one or two from Pukekohe. Just how they turned out for the speculators who sent them forward was not disclosed, but. they must have been mulcted in rather heavy transit charges. A PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT. Quite a number of agricultural and pastoral associations throughout the Dominion consider that the be-all and end-all of their existence is to hold an annual show, or perhaps two, during the course of the year. Little is done in the way of fostering and making known the experiments of members or of assisting in work of the kind. It is pleasurable to note exceptions to this rule, and one of the exceptions is the Methven Association. This week Mr F. E Ward, Fields Instructor at Christchurch, judged the fodder growing competitions, and the results showed a tine spirit of enterprise among the competitors, who, almost without exception, had some experiment in progress with the giowing of their crops arranged by themselves with a view to testing out the best manures and the best methods of growing turnips, etc., on their particular farms. This is a good spirit, for every farmer should make experiments wherever possible. The conclusions which can bo drawn from home-conducted experiments are so often much more valuable than results which may be obtained from trials of manures, perhaps conducted many miles away, where the conditions fcs to soil and climate are not applicable. Good prizes are given for five-acre and ten-acre plots of turnips of various classes and for tenacre plots of green feed. The green feed favoured is Western Wolths. The winning plot of this grass, entered by Mr S. G. Holmes, was sown in the middle of Februar with just under 1$ bushels of seed to the acre and liewt to the acre of 42-44 super. Previously the land had been infested with creeping fog-grass, but an intensive working had put the soil in splendid condition. Five weeks after sowing it was stocked with five ewes to the acre. A similar paddock, which won the same competition last year, was closed for seed on November 23, and a 60-bushel crop of seed was the result. Mr Holmes is of the opinion that, plenty of work upon the land pays, as he grossed £23 10s an acre for tho seed. Quite a perfect crop was shown to the judge in the white fleshed class, and it won handsomely, being especially even and healthy. This crop, exhibited by Mr John Watson, was sown at the end of December with lewt of superphosphate, and the turnips had maintained a steady growth, and will give an abundance of feed well into the winter. The land had previously been in ridged turnips, but this year was sown in 14in rows with Boz of Imperial Green Globe seed. The merits of growing swedes by the flat or the ridged method was tested this season, and there were some fine crops in the competition. Two competitors had ridged their swedes in 26in apart, but they failed to give as high a yield as a crop on the flat 14in apart. t

In the district there a difference of opinion as to whether it is best to dqep plough immediately before sowing turnips, and one of the competitors, Mr R. J. Low. the president of the association, carrion out experiments in this connection. Mr Low is an old boy of Canterbury Agricultural College (Lincoln), so that liis work was carried out in a systematic manner. The result of it was to demonstrate that the skim ploughing 11 months a"o, allowing the grass to rot thoroughly before tho deep ploughing, was preferable to the two deep ploughings. The crops were sown in the first week in November. Mr Low sowed 12oz of seed to the acre mixed with the manure. The paddock was an old grass one. and half was skimmed, and tho other half deep ploughed about 1] months a*ro, and the skimmed land was then left, lying until the gross was thoroughly rotten in tho furrows. In the spring the whole was worked again, the skimmed portion being well disced, and then left again for some time without touching. Prior to the second ploughing it was grubbed and harrowed, and the whole paddock deep ploughed in October. After harrowing and rolling the seed was sown. Half the double deep ploughing was sown with yellow turnips and half with whit©. The part which had been skimmed was treated similarly. 'Hie seed was sown the first week in November, and 3cwt of Ephos, 44-46 suner. Nauru, and lime used to the acre. The result was a good strike of turnips, and the crop was very much in favour of the skimming and subsequent deep ploughing. The swedes wore sown on a paddock ploughed out of an old stand of cocksfoot., and it was skimmed in winter, and then given numerous gruhbings and workings with the harrows. Tt was deen ploughed at the end of October. Half the paddock

was sown with 3o\vt of equal parts of super, and Nauru, and the other with 3cwt of Ephos. The strike was excellent, and the crop was a good one, though better on the part on which the manures were mixed.