STOCK NOTES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5736, 2 December 1896, Page 4

STOCK NOTES.

» — Br Tussock in " Canterbury Times."] The wool sales last Friday passed off, on the -whole, satisfactorily. The wool was more attractive in appearance than it has been for some years past, and this, no doubt, influenced the buyers to pay extreme values compared with prices now ruling: in London and Australia. Eightpence is not a high "top price," but all the t>est clips are yet to be offered, and even if no improvement in the market takes place, this price is sure to be exceeded later on. The prospects of the Home market are good, and may lead to a rise in values here before the December sales. At Dunedin there has for the last week or two been more life in the fat sheep market, and prices for cross-bred wethers in the wool have risen appreciably, from 16s to 19s being paid for the best lines. Other stock remain without much change. Mr P. C. Threlkeld has sold a line of English Leicester ram hoggets to Messrs Cowper and Knight, Hawke's Bay. They included the twenty shown in the flock pens at the Christchurch Show. The sheep were shorn before being shipped, and yielded an average of over 14$lb of wool, very light in grease, without the locks. Why is it that stockmen, when having their animals photographed, will not place them in the position suggested by the operator. He does not dictate to them how to feed their beasts, and they might allow him to know how to photograph them. It is only once in a way that the photographer makes a white sow come out a black boar. The Sydney Stock and Station Journal states that Mr E. Owen Cox, late of Christchurch, has been engaged to manage and supervise the produce business — the meat trade especially — for Messrs Birt, Potter and Hughes, London agents for Messrs J. H. Geddes, Birt and Co., Sydney. A letter from the London firm says that Mr Cox is now " busily engaged in creating a system of demand and distribution throughout the English provinces and Europe." The Colonial Consignment and Distributing Company, reporting on the market for New Zealand frozen mutton, say that, thoutrh animals to Sept. 30 were nearly 200,000 less than the first nine months of last year, " stocks on hand were heavy, and with known afloats, ample for all likely requirements, for demand is not what it was a couple of years ago, and fewer numbers suffice. The difficulty of obtaining the really choice mutton that used to be imported has thrown many of the best customers on ..to other sorts — Dutch, and Deptford and Birkenhead-killed Argentine, while the great improvement in quality of Plates, and the bright fresh condition in which they are marketed, and their cheapness, enable them to compete with second class New Zealands, and curtail the sales of the last, which for months past have, as well, been handicapped by indifferent condition and stale appearance. The more or less damaged state of meat put on the market has, for months, kept prices down, and it is only now, when there seems to be a finish to these, damages, that it has been found possible to advance prices. Within the last ten days, the best Canterbury sheep offered have risen from 3§d to 3Jd and 3£d per lb, a few selected have made up to 4d per lb, and those who have held over their shipments per Gothic, Matatua, &c, will now, to some extent, be recouped for the heavy losses sustained over previous hoarded shipments. Very few Dunedins are marketed; they and Southlands, if fresh and of good quality, are worth 3f d, if very prime 3-J-d per lb. North Island mutton is now selling at 3^d per lb, though some is being sold at 3d and even 2|d per lb." The imports of frozen mutton into the United Kingdom for the nine months ending Sept. 30 last, • were as follow : — From New Zealand, 1,124,406 carcases; from Australia, 1,046,474 carcases; and from Eiver Plate, 1,372,382 carcases. There is no doubt that the success of the New Zealand and Australian Land Company's Lincolns is due to the influence of the 'Kirkham ram imported by the company three or four years ago, and the following particulars, from the Mark Lane Express, of the flock owned by Messrs J. E. and E. E. Kirkham, come very opportunely. Messrs Kirkham, like their father before them, do not exhibit at shows, objecting to the pampering which is necessary to put the sheep into " show condition." The extract is as follows: — " It will, no doubt, be additionally interesting at the present time, when so much attention is being directed to the production of Lincoln longwool sheep, to note some of the records made by the Biseathorpe flock. It was the custom in Lincolnshire in years gone by to let rams for the season only. In 1864 the noted longwool ram Volunteer, the- best sire of his day, bred by the late Mr Thomas Kirkham at Biseathorpe, was let for the season by public auction to Captain Catlin, of Wisbech, for 160gs, and in the succeeding four years this grand animal was also let, producing a total of .£536. He was then retained as a stud ram in the Biseathorpe flock for a further period of five years, and he died of old age. In the same year the grand average of rams let for the season only was .£22 12s 4d per head, and there were 150 of them — certainly a long price for such a large number of animals. It was in 1 872 when the first actual sale of rams took place at Biseathorpe, and there was a record gathering of hpme and foreign buyers on this occasion. There were 68 shearling rams, and these -were sold for a total of 1772g5, or an average of <£27 7s 2£d per head. There were also 16 two-shears, and they realised 357g5, being an average of .£23 8s 6f d each, and there were 36 three-shears and upwards, these making 793£gs, an average of .£23 2s 10£ d each. The sale realised a grand total of .£3068 12s 6d— the record sale of the year. In 1873 the rams made .£2511 125, being an average of .£35 17s 7d per head. Many were imported to Australia, and at one of the Melbourne sales a long-wool ram made 3150g5, the sire having been purchased of Messrs Kirkham for 200gs. This ram, by the way, sold for 1200gs a few months after landing in Australia. In 1874 Mr Dudding gave i>2lo, and the late Mr Charles Clarke, of Scopwick, .£lB3 15s respectively for a longwool shearling ram at the Biseathorpe sale. It may be mentioned that on this oxasion a portrait in oil was presented to Mr Thomas Kirkham 'in recognition of liis services as a ram breeder/ The winner in the Lincoln longwool shearling ram class at the Eoyal last year — a ram which was never beaten in the show-ring — was by the Biseathorpe lOOgs, bred by Messrs Kirkham at Biseathorpe. The exceptionally grand shearling longwool ram, purchased for 350gs at the Lincoln fair by Messrs Kirkham and Mr E. H. Cartwright, is a magnificent specimen of the Lincoln longwool sire. As a hogget his fleece weighed 341 b, being long, wavy, lustrous, and fine. His present weight is 27st 10lb (14lb to the stone), and in girth his measurement is exactly six feet. He has a remarkably good pedigree, and is in every respect a true type of a Lincoln longwool ram. His sire was Grenadier (1042), bred by Mr Harwood Mackinder, of Langton Grange ; his grandsire, 33gs Eiby (451), and his great grandsire First Windsor Royal (152)— which sold for 250gs— both bred by Mr H. Dudding, of Eiby. Mr E. H. Cartwright, the joint owner of the 350-guinea ram above referred to, has for many years purchased rams at Biseathorpe, the last two being the celebrated stud animals St Simon (883) and Biseathorpe Return (570). Keddington, one of his favourite stud rams, bred by Messrs Kirkham, was sold after being used four seasons for .£6O to a noted ram breeder. It is believed that the next few years will see a remarkable development in Lincoln longwool ram breeding, and as the competition for these animals between South American, South African, New Zealand and Australian buyers is becoming very keen, the record prices obtained this year will be exceeded. There is ample evidence that breeders share this view in the fact that the best animals of the' year at Lincoln were secured for the stud by Lincolnshire breeders. Messrs J. R. and R. R. Kirkham and Mr E. H. Cartwright are therefore to be commended for their endeavour to enhance the reputation of Lincoln longwoolB."