ON THE LAND

New Zealand Tablet, 26 August 1920, Page 43

ON THE LAND

MARKET REPORTS. v ; r: :: There was a medium yarding of 185 head of fat cattle at Burnside last week. The demand was good, at prices slightly firmer than those ruling at the previous auction. Extra prime heavy bullocks made from. £2B to £34 12s 6d, prime £23 to £2B, medium £l7 to £23, lighter from £ls 10s, extra prime heavy heifers £lB to £23, prime £ls to £lB, medium £l3 to £ls, lighter from £9 10s. Fat 'Sheep.—There was a good yarding of 2663 penned, including a fair proportion of prime ewes and wethers. Prices were about on a par with the preceding week's, with a firming tendency towards the end of the sale. A few extra prime wethers made from 57s to 645, prime from 46s to 545, medium 38s to 425, light and unfinished from 375, extra prime ewes 44s to 59s 3d, prime from 35s to 38s, medium from 30s to 355, light from 255. Fat Lambs. —There was a small yarding. Competition was keen at late rates. Best lambs to 355, medium 27s to 31s. The few pens of store lambs offered were difficult to sell. Fat Pigs.—There was a medium yarding, which sold at late rates. Suckers 15s to 255, weaners 27s 6d to £2, stores to £3 ss, choppers to £8 10s, porkers £4 15s to £6, light baconers £6 to £7, heavy baconers from £7 to £9. At the Addington market last week there were big yardings of all classes of stock, particularly of fat sheep and store cattle. The values in these showed an easing compared with pre-National sales. Fat Cattle. There was a slightly larger yarding and a firm sale throughout for all prime sorts. Extra prime steers brought from £37 to £46 10s, prime steers £26 10s to £32 10s, medium steers £lB to £26, prime heifers £lB 10s to £24 10s, medium heifers £l2 to £lB, prime cows £lB 10s to £2l 10s, ordinary cows £l2 to £l6 Gs, light and unfinished cows £9 7» 6d to £lO 10s. Fat Sheep. There was an overflow yarding, which graziers assisted to clear. Values were down about 5s to 7s per head compared with pre-National sales. At the close of the sale prices were firmer than at the opening. Extra prime wethers realised from 53s to 665, prime wethers 42s 6d to 49s 6d, medium wethers 37s 6d to 41s 6d, light and unfinished 33s 3d to 375, prime ewes 38s to 455, medium ewes 30s to 365, light and unfinished 22s 6d to 295, prime hoggets 31s to 43s ordinary hoggets 24s to 28s. Vealers.— was a keen inquiry. Runners to £9 17s 6d, good vealers to £7 os, medium calves £4 7s 6d, inferior 355. Fat Pigs.—There was a particularly keen demand. Choppers £8 to £lO ss, light baconers £6 10s to £7 5s heavy baconers £7 15s to £8 10s, extra heavy baconers 2a aVe r rage Price P er lb ls °i d to ls Id; porkers age price per lb Is 2d to ls 3d.

CONTROL OF DISEASE IN ORCHARDS. Mr. W. K. Dallas, Orchard Instructor, attached to the Department of Agriculture, gave an address in Christehurch the other evening, on the control of disease in orchards and spraying. The lecturer, In dealing with fungi, divided them into two classes—and internal parasites. For the former he advised the use of spraying with lime sulphur or Bordeaux T X A« I } he latter he su gg €st ed the cutting out of the affected parts of the tree, swabbing over with a disinfectant, and finally painting with tar. Insect pests he divided into two classes: first, biting insects which included the codlin moth and 'the pfar slug ¥o°k?il S t r kl fl ng .T 6CtS J aphides, P slugs, et To kill-the first he advised an application of poison m the form of arsenate of lead, and for the second an" apphcation of red oil, lime sulphur, and b£Sleaf rorty. In addition to spraying, he said, there «™ in lulf ll°J ™ ci -Teeing trees in full vigor, adopting a system of cutting out diseased parts of a tree, and gathering U ppr U and the remnants of crops and burning them Sf gmners could. not do better than to stafS'^ud

stock and - healthy trees, and in every instance they: should, when they come across a form of disease with which they were not familiar, submit it to an orchard instructor. : : ; ?Hr 'S"I'., ' : .'- : " : ''" SLAGGING PASTURES IN SUMMER, Experiments in the application of basic slag ill summer show that it may be quite as effective as when applied in winter" (says the Agricultural Gazette). , In tests over a considerable number of years, at Sevington, in Hampshire, some 10 different methods of manuring grass land were tried. Sheep were grazed on the different plots, and were weighed from time to time. One plot of three acres (Plot No.. 2) had received 4 tons of lime per acre early in 1901. On June 13, 1907, it received scwt of basic slag, equal to 1001 b of phosphoric acid per acre. Mr. Ashcroft, steward of the Bath and West Agricultural Society, reporting on the experiment, says: "The application of scwt of basic slag on June 13 wrought a marvellous transformation. "It is commonly said that basic slag requires time and plenty of rainfall before any effect can be seen/ but by the August weighing, eight weeks afterwards' the change in the appearance- of the plot , was quite evident, and all through the next two months perfectly remarkable: plenty of healthy-looking small clover herbage all over the plot. It is most interesting to observe how immediately the sheep bear witness. . On Plot 2 the increase of weight per sheep in the fourth month was 9.11 b. No other plot approached that, not even where they were having cake, and the total increase for the fourth, fifth, and sixth months together was 17.61b5, which again is higher than any other plot." J In his report for the next season, the eighth Mr Ashcroft thus expresses himself: "As soon as'ever any chance of growth came this spring the plot became lull of clover herbage, which . grew so -luxuriantly that 10 sheep were increased to 12 at the weighing in May, and to 14 at the weighing, July 2. The contrast between Plot 2 and all the other plots, so deficient, comparatively speaking, in clovers and bottom herbage, was extraordinary, and perhaps all the more so in a season little favorable to growth. From being at the very bottom of all the manured plots, and very olten lower than the untreated one, Plot 2 jumps at once to the top, and gives a total increase of 5941 b a result which has never been obtained any season on any of the manured plots, and only exceeded by the r? P i C Q elV T lg i lb of cake per da y on Plot l in 1907 and 1908. In the third month the sheep on Plot 2 averaged an increase of 20.11 b per sheep, beating the sheep on Plot 1 getting a pound of cake, which averaged 181 b per sheep. v There are other advantages in summer applications says the Ministry of Agriculture, The land is then drier and carries the cart better, farm work is not very pressing, demand is less, and delivery may better be depended on, and more choice may be exerZl a 1° gr f e f Natura %> the higher the grade wetbS f C I f r rriage ' othe ™> Provided equal S 1 °\ P hos P»fte are applied, the lower grades, though not so quick acting, may be counted on to give higher. ° r y g °° d ' results in the end as the m™** is generally believed that it is not well to turn pregnant stock on to newly-slagged land before rain titer f f ag ff herba S e > and *is Possibly better not to do so. Generally speaking, however there is n °/ ear A 0 f stock suffering from grfiing newly. win b T"; /• soon as ? e Slag bßgins - to tie St it will be found, in cases where pastures have only been sagged m parts, that the stock concentrate on the slagged portions, with the result that these Lk barer than the flagged. This, viewed apart from its sk raging auses needless doubts "s to" f th o e mgood- „ Where it is impossible to obtain slag an eauivaga| S si: g Uld ; USUa " y glVe as good —W as high^t