AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2817, 4 March 1908, Page 6

AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

Farmers in the Shannon district *ppre« ciate the cash that can be made in the pig industry, and have commenced to breed and rear pigs on a much larger scald than hitherto. As demonstrating the systematic manner in which the Ashburton .County Council is combating the small bird nuisance, it may be mentioned that -since November, 1907, i-f; has purchased no fewer than 304,993 eggs and heads, at a cost of 2s per 100. A halfbred Jersey oow, the property 06 Mr C. Rumbel, of Salisbury, New South' Walee, is stated to have given th© remarkable test of 8.4 per cent, of butter-fat. Further good rains fell on February 25* and the country received a thorough soaking. A mob of 3000 sheep passed through! from Gieborne, via. Morere, recently on th<j ws.7 to TVaikato by the roundabout Petana rotiL-?, „ iich is made to do duty for thd development of the sheep trade with tha Waikato. Buyers are already offering Taranaki butter factories as much as Is 3d per lb for their winter output. Several dairy farmers in the Pongaroa and Makuri districts have had to sell their; herde on account of the scarcity of feed. The Belfast Freezing Works have justi completed their firßt quarter of a, century's work. Up to January 1 there had beert put through these works 9,049,732 sheefl and lambs, 15,994 cattle, and 52,248 pigs. l A second crop of hay is almost an un* known quantity in this district this season; (fays the Hawera Star). There i», however, one farmer who can boast of taking two crops of hay from a&e field this summer.. The second lot is thick and of fair length. A New Plymouth man in a position t<* speak authoritatively says that, unless climaiio conditions immediately change, winter fodder will be »o scarce that tha importation of oats will be four times M> great in the coming winter as iasfr winter. The Waimate A. and P. Association* finding their show grounds quite made* quate for the growing requirements of tho popular annuals exhibition of stock and implements at Waimate, have arranged td abandon their old show grounds and' to hold the future shows on the racecourse grounds, where there is ample accommodation and an ideal site in every way. One of the best threshing results hearc? of for some time (says the Tiinaru Heraidp was recently aocoir.pl ished on Mr George Talbot's farm, Kingsdown, when Mr James Greig's threshing mill in 11 con9ecutn;a days put through 12,500 bushels of wheat: and just over 6000 bushels of oats. The' grain was threshed from the stook— . ai feature which adds additional oredit to Mr Greig's employees. Mr Talbot has always good fortune with Vis crops, and this year's yields are vory good, a paddock of 12« acres of Tuscan wheat threshing 54 bushels to the acre. He also had a 40-acre paddocks of Danish oats which yielded 110 bushels. The problem of supplying winter feed fotf stock is becoming more serious every day, (writes the Asbburton correspondent of tho Christchurch Press), and the present shortage of water is being keenly felt in all parts of the county. One resident in the Kyle. distric+ has lost a considerable number ofi sheep mainly owing to the want of water? in the paddocks, and others in various parts of the country l>av« to oarfc water daily to the stock. Creeks and other water courses which had never been known to fail before- this season are now quite dry. Stock are now commencing to feel the want' of feed, and even if the rain does come, as it has been threatening to do almost) daily, it will be too late to benefit the turnip and swede crops greatly. It will, how-

Cheap Bulbs for present planting. See Niuuo and Blair's advertisement, page 9 of this issue, for specially cheap lines of Tulips, eta,

«ver, quickly bring on the oats and rye, which have been sown in considerable areas for green feed, every blade of which will be of great value. The worst feature cf the present dry spell is that it is so general throughout New Zealand, whereas on many former occasions, if there was a feed famine in one part of the Dominion, feed ■was to be found in other parts.

It w stated by the Tsmaru Post of the 24th ult. that purchases of wheat were made on Saturday at 3s lOd on trucks, ■which shows a clear drop of 4d per bushel in three days. Buyers are not at all keen, as it is anticipated that the market will fur- . ther recede.

At the annual meeting of the Ashburton A. and P. Association, held on the 22nd ult., the President (Mr T. E. Upton) reported that the membership now totalled 607, bein» 563 ordinary and 44 life members. The balance sheet snowed total receipts £1453, £481 8s having been received bj way of members' subscriptions. This constitutes a record in the history of the association. The year was started with a debit balance of £439 5s 3d, and the deficit at the bank at the present time is £298 1« 3d. It is hoped that in the ensuing year the whofe of the overdraft will bo liquidated. In the assets, the Ashburton show grounds are valued' at £700, and the buildings at £2137, making a total of £2837. The Tinwald property is valued at - £384. The balance in the statement of assets and liabilities is set down at £3071. During the past year about £40 has been expended on improvements, but there is a tendency to allow any heavy expenditure on improvean*nts to stand over till the overdraft has been wiped out. The balance sheet wa3 adopted. Officers were elected for the ensuing year. Jt was resolved to Hold the winter show on Friday, June 13, and Saturday, JFune 14, and to allow exhibitors to remove stock after 3 p.m. on the second day. A proposal that a one-day show of sheep should be held in the autumn was referred to the committee, together with a recommendation that the number of competitions to be- held in* the ring at the annual show should be increased. It was decided that Sir Joseph "Ward should be asked to open, the next show.

Tho Lyttelton Times of ihe 25th alt. siljs : — Some interest has recently been arused in the question of providing chilling rooms at the Ohristchurch city abattoir. Cr Cooper explained the position to a reVporter yesterday. Recognising! that there was a demand for a chilling room, the Abattoir Committee had plans prepared for a building and plant to cost £9000. A ■conference of master butchers was called, but those who attended said that they did not want a chilling room, and would not pay for it, though the council only asked for 4 per cent, on the coat. Those butchers. Cr Cooper eaid, admitted that they did Dot wholly represent the butchers of the city, so further inquiries were made; but it was found that only three small butchers needed such an extension of the abattoirs, the others having been otherwise provided for. The committee was still prepared to «lect a chilling room, if it was paid for, at •any time.

In consequence of the shortage of feed And the failure of the turnip and rape •crops over a large portion of the Ashburton County, lambs that are being slaughtered at the Fairneld Freezing Works are not up io the usual high standard of quality, and many are being classed as rejects. The Ashburton Mail states that the threshing season in the lower portion -of the Ashburton County has been practically completed, with the exception of a few straggling small lots. Taken as a whole, the wheat crop has threshed out several bushels in excess of farmers' anticipations, and as the price is much better than it -was last year, the prospects of farmers are ■not nearly so discouraging as they seemed at an early stage of the season. The greatest loss sustained by" the farming community is the shortage of feed and the •decline in the price of sheep and wool.

Mr John Moore, inspector of stock, who has returned to Blenheim after a tour of the whole district, including the Upper Wairau and the Clarence Valley, states that, all tilings considered, the^ state of the country, co far as the rabbit pest is •concerned, ia highly satisfactory (f^ys the Marlborough Express). Upon the high country of Hillersden there are very few rabbits to be seen, even in the most favourable circumstances, the poisoning work •carried out during the last few years having resulted most beneficially. Mr Moore says that in much of the. high country the Timothy and snow grasses are reviving in a remarkable manner. Better still, it has always been found that once thi6 class of country recovers itself, there is no retrogression — that is, from local causes. The Clarence Valley, however, presents a dreary appearance just now, and it was all the party could do to get its horses through to Kekerangu. as "they were required to travel for three days without more to eat than willow branches and such fodder. In the vicinity of Lake M^Rae, however, splenoid nibbles of clover were made the most ■of here and there.

The following notes are from' the Pastorahsts' Review for February: — About 80,000 sheep were boiled down last season by Messrs John Cooke and Co. at the Kiverina Freezing "Company's Deniliquin works, and about 71,000 by Mr J. Oddy frt his boiling-down works ar Deniliquin. This will give some idea of the severity of the season experienced in Southern Biverina.— ln the last annual report of the

Department of Agriculture of South Australia it is stated that the dairying industry " has taken quite- a hold in many parts of the State. An impetus has been given to the industry by the establishment of the Government Butter Factory. The pressing needs of the industry, however, are a better class of cow and the wider use of the silo." — Owing to the increase in the caterpillar pest the cultivation of barley in Victoria has decreased from 53,000 acres in 1897 to 30,000 in 1907, and barley is now imported in large quantities. Barky yields on the average about twice the crop that wheat does, and the price is generally considered higher, but the difficulties of harvesting the crop and the ravages of the caterpillar have made it unpopular with farmers. — Sir Montagu Nelson, in giving evdence before ihe Royal Commission on shipping rings, the opinion that the market for Australian meat was much more likely to be upset by rabbits than by the American beef trust. He gives as his reason that the American trust dealt only in chilled beef, for which they got 6d a ib, whereas Australian meat, fetching only 3d, went to an entirely different class of consumer, but on© who was tempted by the low prices of rabbits. — Wheat-growers in the dry districts of Australia and Argentina will do well to note that in the dry districts of the United Staes durum or macaroni wheats are supplanting the ordinary kinds of wheat. It has been found that they yield well, are great drought-resisters. and can be grown on the semi-arid soils of the interior where ordinary wheats cannot be raised profitably. Their cultivation has extended so rapidly that in 1906 the aggregate yield was 50 million bushels, or onetwelfth of the total wheat harvest of the United States. — A motor put on the market by Marshall and Co., of Gainsborough, worked with paraffin oil, has done a 24hours' non-stop ploughing run, hauling a six-furrow plough over 22 acres during that time at an expenditure of 44gal of paraffin, and cutting furrows 6in deep and 9J>in wide. This motor has thrashed for six hours on a consumption of 9£gal of paraffin and less than half a gallon of petrol with a fu'le.ized thrashing machine, and it has also driven for two days under normal working conditions a 4ft 6in thrashing machine, with a four-knife chaffcutter and chaffblower combined. It will take a load of 10 tons up long inclines of 1 in 20 at four miles an hour