AGRICULTURAL.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXIX, Issue 12111, 4 July 1903, Page 1 (Supplement)

AGRICULTURAL.

:? stock sales should bo handy for reference:,- , ~. 'Albury:—Asarranged (oni a'Monday); ' .- 'Tairliei s —As arranged- (on a s Monday). : ' -Geraldirie:—Sveiy Wednesday,'ait- Mwtdell's. ■■■■-■-'.'- yardsv'and at-Farmefs'Jyaras.•;•'"'.■'-. ;V ; i' Pleasant -Point: Fortnightly,- .'alternate, '■''•'■'•': Mondays. •- Bt.AndrewSi—-Third Friday of each month. -Btudholme:^—Second and fourth Friday: in ," "month. ■ - • Temuka. —Fortnightly, alternate Tuesdays. Washdyke. : —Fortnightly, alternate Tues,;;;:d»ys. '.. • -.*■• .:■;-:■ Waimate.—First Friday in month. ~.: Messrs James Nelson and Sons have nearly a thousand retail , meat shops in- - Great, Britain,', with a turnover of some-, • think a year/.-,,, - We.-are just in midwinter,,.arid yet a' l6caj.„paper. reports that a farmer oh the ;Waime'a; Plains (Southland) started to cut' { : /a7ip.o-aci-B. jaddock: of oats week before." ;"lasL" "'.''.■:.-.■.■''.}?-:' ''■''".' : "- '-''"' ,Vr-'Accqrding, to the Eketahuna "Express," v 'Mr, Johnston)'" well-known in. that • district, v has- been- engaged- by a:firm of auctioneers in- the North, Island to pro;:Tceed ,t6 Denmark and: other daiying parts :,of;the Continent, to purchase stud, dairying stock for this colony. ■;;:■-; It ;ia-reported that .there has been some^ X thing approaching in the frozen rabbit trade, buyers.in and NewZealand being unable to realise within some v shillings , per. crate of cost in- the Home markets. They assert that prices of rabbits in colonies must decrease if the - trade is to continue. '.- An evidence of the rapid recovery.; of some'.parts -of Australia from the effects of-the drought is seen in the TesultOf the Queensland, A. • and P. Society's annual show,' a ifortnight ago.'. Owing; to', the , <Jjought the show was abandoned, last year, ;and there was some talk of a: similar ac-tion-being taken this year, but it was ultimately decided to - hold the showy" with .the.result that it was the best one held by the society up to date..;' , ! ' .... .•''-' Thanksto refrigerating waggons, Siberia: sends enormous quantities of butter-either direct-..t0- the English-. butter' market or' else to Denmark, whence it is re-exported to Great Britain. The Russian Government would appear to be fully alive to the importance of holding, as far as possible, the English butter market, for they have introduced the very moderate tariff of 17s 2d a-ton for transit from Kourgane'to London—a 15 days' journey; they have, moreover, purchased 465 additional waggons provided with refrigerating apparatus, making a total of over a thousand waggons used for the purpose. . ' : The chairman of ,the Gisborne branch !of the Farmers' Union says that district has laboured under great difficulties in the' frozen meat industry. A shipment of bullocks, which he sent Home, only brought him-2£d per lb nett, whilst the same meat. was retailed at from- 8d to lOd per lb. The person had the trouble of rearing the bullocks for less than 3d, whilst those who had: the selling of the meat receive*!,from 4d to'6d. When the figures were realised in that way, the matter, must appeal to reasonable-minded persons for the Government to move, iii the matter. The Ar-

gentine was an example. The Government in that country guaranteed 5 per cent; oh all meat and dairy works, which were ■exempted from taxation. A noticeable feature of the London market at the middle of May (says a- contemporary) was the equivalent value of River Plate .and ordinary New Zealand sheep, ' the former being "a point higher in the i country. The explanation given by Messrs ', Gordon, Woodroffe and Co. is the light supplies of Plates, and the arrangements the-Plate companies have with country 'buyers, whereby the latter are practically obliged to continue drawing a portion of their supplies from them all the year, otherwise, when New Zealand sheep are dear, the buyers are cut off Plate supplies, •and are thus stranded- for-cheap v meat. This seems likely to be rectified; lii the future, when the -new factories in South America full swing, and when it , seems probabre there will be more competition in the London market among sellers of River Plate sheep.' Messrs H. S. Fitter and Spns attribute the circumstance to so much inferior meat being shipped lately.

THE SPARROW. •Regarding the small birds' pest, Mr W. Cunningham informs us that there is 'too'j much feed in the,paddocks at present to make efforts at poisoning successful. His test 'of this •• is the absence of sparrows from the fowl yard. When feed is scarce in the fields the sparrows flock to the 'louse's to feed with the fowls; just now there are none about the house, but large flocks are to be seen in tha stubbles, where they no doubt find plenty of weed seeds. In eating these they may do some good, but they exact too big wages for it next harvest.—Mr Mahony is of opinion that the usual method of* mixing strychnine and sugar and soaking them into the wheat together is a mistake; and that the poison should be.first soaked in, and the sugar put on afterwards .so as to be outside, as this is calculated to hide the bitterness better. But nothing is to be gained in this way if the grains are so large that the birds have to pick them to pieces before swallowing them. —A Manawatu farmer thinks that the small hawk, the mer- : lin, should be imported to cope with the sparrow pest. He asserted the merlin, {unlike the rest of the hawk tribe, confined fcitself to a feathered diet, lambs and sheep "being left entirely alone.—The British Board of Agriculture has at length come to the conclusion that the house sparrow (passer .domesticus, L) has overstepped the limits of his usefulness and ought to' be suppressed. The Board has issued a leaflet in which it says :—" Hundreds' of examinations of the contents of the stomachs- of sparrows have been made in this country and abroad," we are told, " and it has' been- shown that from 75 to 80 per cent, of the food of adult .birds throughout the wfcole year consists of cultivated grain of -some sort. A farmer in the neiijhbourfiood of a town or village where the bird has been unmolested has this fact forcibly brought home to him in much diminished crppa. In such districts the profitable cultivation of cereals becomes well-nigh impossible." The hedge sparrow and the ~ tree sparrow are exempted from the ■,on'demnation.

WOOL SHIPMENTS TO THE \ CONTINENT.

With reference to ihe cabled statements frpni; Sydney; concerning the probable shipment of New Zealand wools direct to the Continent, and the announcement that proposals: in connection with the matter of arranging a direct steam line had been submitted to the European principals of one firm; a representative of the " Times" had V conversation with several leading woolbrokers of Wellington with a view to ascertaining their opinions on the subject. ' The particular portion of the cablegram which; seemed to hold out a golden future for: the wool-grower or producer was that an- , nmmcrog that "it was understood if a scheme was evolved the producers of New' Zealand would reeeive cash down for tlieir wool." The assuring supplementary paraj graph that " while the trade in crossbreds was not perhaps large at present, foreign buyers believed it could be largely developed," appeared to lend colour of the -right kind to the project—from the fanners' view—should it ever assume practical proportions. Asked as to the exact meaning of the reference to "cash down," all the brokers, without <aceeption said they were quite at it loss to understand .that the producer was likely to get any more for las wool under any new arrangement that he was receiving under existing conditions. Mr Edward Pearce, head of the wool department of Jjevin and Company, was very emphatic .on this point. "Why," he said,_ "the gets cash down nowi This pro.positiori, -if it ever eventuates, is not going j|p ;bring fresh -benefits to the farmer. At

present the agents are prepared to buy outright, while the farmer, if he so pleases, can also have his wool shipped .direct to Ldhdoh, and immediately on delivery the agent jays an advance—a very considerable amount of the actual value of the wool. Outside of this, howev.er," added Mr Pearcej " we are quite prepared to ship on behalf of any producer to the Continent. Last*'season we shipped a few small lots on, behalf of various consignors to Antwerp and. Dunkirk, but as a general rule the colonial-producer prefers the London market." ' The whole question, Mr Pearee further stated,-was regulated by values, and (he farmer would naturally sell to. the highest bidder. ' Mr A. H. Miles, manager for Murray, Roberts and Company, was equally emphatic. The statement about " cash down," he said, was " only a tag,", and in proof of the assertion he produced,a copy of the rules of. the Wool-brokers' Association, a clause in which provided that " all wool was to be paid for in cash on delivery." As far as the market for crossbreds was concerned, Mr Miles said there was always a demand for that wool in London. The shortage of merino wool, in comparison to the demand, foreshadowed a good future for crossbred some years back, and-in a measure the rise had come and had been sustained. In a sense, he explained, the increased call for crossbreds was attributable in a large way to the introduction of new and improved machinery in the large manufacturing houses at HeSne,. | I whereby it was possible to-manufacture articles out of the coarser classes of wool which previously were almost entirely made of merino. Questioned as to; whether he knew anything regarding the proposal, to establish a direct steam line to v the Continent,'MiMiles said he beard it' hinted that the Messageries;Maratimes were contemplating something of the sort. "The question of. preferential trade comes in here," observed Mr Miles. "We allow foreign vessels to' come here and our own have got t6 take pot luck." He. instanced the fact that Britain opened her ports to the world, : while other nations imposed prohibitive rex gulatidn's against foreign shipping. The United States closed down on the Union Company when they were running the, Moana between Honolulu .and--San- ■"Francisco., Yet we, he said,-quietly allow 5 the American liners to trade between Auckland 'and Sydney. .', ■, ' ■.' '..';, x.■-'.•:.'-..' "' ; x The paramount question, of '-...values controlled the whole business of the. sale of wool, he continued. Sales were':periodically held at Antwerp, but generally speaking the prices were only on 'a P ar with those obtaining ,in Sydney .and Melbourne,to say. nothing of London,. ,If Continental, buyers come to, the colony they would have to'be prepared to jrfye advanced prices if they hoped to "do business' with the producer.

These views were-endorsed by other firms connected with the wool-trade. There : seemed to be a consensus of j opinion, that the inducements, if any,- held-out "to the colonial grower would.snot, be v sufficiently a dJreet trade with the Continent. /. ..-..,:,,.;.•' '■ "■'■'.■'';■