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New Zealand Tablet, 13 February 1913, Page 59

GENERAL. Recently a good shearing tally was put up at Tainamely, bit two-tooth. wethers in eight hours 40 minutes by three men, but it has since been beaten at a Raetihi shed. Three local shearers tallied 626 for a similar time, the individual tallies being 216, 205, and 205 as against 237, 216, and 161. Experiments in Ireland have shown that 6cwt per acre of superphosphate applied early in spring will destroy moss in pastures, in exceptional cases, where there is a dense carpet of moss, a similar application may be required the following season. The destructive effect is attributed to the acidity of the superphosphate. An experiment has been carried out in Germany with potash salts to determine to what extent they protect plants from frost injury. The plots treated with kainit remained unfrozen, while the untreated plot was frozen hard. The plants on the treated plots, though looking worse at first, soon recovered, and received no harm from the frost. The payments made by the Ballance Dairy Company for milk and cream delivered to its butter factories and creameries during December amounted to £BOOO. This is the largest sum paid by the company in one month since it commenced operations 17 years ago. The company is shipping a large proportion of its output to America. A consignment of 1000 boxes has been forwarded to Vancouver. The crops, especially - the wheat crops (says the Christchurch Frees), are looking remarkably well in the fields between Kaiapoi and Rangiora. Most of the fields give evidence of heavy ields, though here and there a low-lying field looks sickly. Threshing has already commenced, and should fine weather continue little leading in will be done, as most of the stuff can be threshed from the stock. The late rain has improved the grass very , much in the North Canterbury district, especially on the lighter soils where it has suffered from the hot days and scorching north-westers. There were only medium yardings of fat cattle, fat lambs, and pigs at Burnside last week. The entry of fat sheep was up to the average. The small yarding (131) of fat cattle was keenly competed for at prices fully 10s to 15s per head in advance of previous week’s rates. It was a mixed yarding, consisting chiefly of cows and heifers. Quotations: Best bullocks, £l3 10s to £l4 7s 6d ; good do, £ll 10s to £l2 15s; best cows and heifers, £lO to £lO 7s 6d. The bulk of the 2292 fat sheep were medium-weight good butchers’ sorts, which were keenly competed lor at prices about 2s in advance of previous week’s rates. Quotations: Best wethers, 23s 6d to 255; extra do, to 26s 6d; good do, 21s to 235; best ewes, 21s to 22s 3d; good, 18s to 20s 6d. Owing to the small entry (310) of fat lambs prices were firmer, some pens being Is 6d dearer than at last sale. Quotations: Best lambs, 16s 6d to 18s 6d; good, 15s to 16s. The prices for pigs of all sorts showed little change from rates ruling at previous sales. At Addington last week there was a heavy yarding of store sheep, but very small entries of fat sheep and lambs. Other descriptions of stock came forward in average numbers. Store sheep were in good demand, and fat lambs sold at about previous week’s rates, but fat sheep sold at a considerable advance in consequence of the very short yarding. There was an advance in fat cattle. Bacon pigs were easier, but porkers showed no change. There were only 727 , fat lambs penned, and they were mostly of medium qualit} 7 . Best lambs made 16s to 17s 8d; and lighter, 13s Id to 15s 6d. The yarding of fat sheep totalled a little under 3000, and the supply was barely sufficient for butchers’ requirements. The consequence was that, prices advanced 2s per head for ewes, and Is 6d for wethers. The range of prices was: Prime wethers, 20s to 22s 10d; lighter, 17s to 19s 6d; prime ewes, 18s to 22sothers, 15s to 17s 6d. One hundred and seventy-six head of fat cattle came forward. The yarding included