AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2894, 25 August 1909, Page 21

AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

The certainty (bar climatic disaster) of a J&ig harvest next year mahQs the question of supply of trucks and engiri&-<^iow flr on the railways important. Mr R. Evantsj ~ebairman of the Canterbury Farmers' Union" states that the Minister of Railways in- 1 formed him that the department was going to construct about 600 L trucks and "50 engines. A heavy mortality among lambs is reported from the Feilding district, as the result of the recent rough weather. By Saturiday the prospects for the season improved, and fine weather agaip prevailed. . Speaking of codlin moth in Timaru (cays the Herald), Dr Hilgendorf, of Lincoln College, said the best remedy of which he I ' koew was the white Leghorn fowl, because , dt is such a. hard worker. He knew of an orchard of five acres so badly infested that at was difficult to get from it an apple free, from the moth. The. -owner securelyfenced- it with. netting, purchased 200 white (Leghorn fowls, and turned . them in. The grass had been' allowed to grow long, and the larvae of the moths, after their descent from the tree, had taken up tfoetr quarters under this herbage. The fowls made such a clearance that ,in the next 'season ' the orchard was practically fre? from codlin moth. * Only one' tree, and that in the farthest. corner from the fowlhouse. was' in- • feoted. ■>' - ; Contrary to pessimistic opinion?" tfcat have fceem expressed, says th<3 Ashburton. Mail, , it ia'~ Stated that land values are -again hardening 1 in the Ashburton County. A .resident in one of the suburbs ,who is on the lookout for a ' farm stated tha* those desiring to' sell' are asking at least £1 par acre" in excess of the values that ruled 12 • months ago. The remark applies more particularly to land capable of- producing | he*vy wheat crops." Messrs DaJgety and Company, Ltd. (in conjunction with Messrs Fisk.jji, Read', and [ Co.) report having sold, on behalf of Messrs Taylor, Fisken, and Co., the D&rr j River Downs Estate, situated near Longreaeh, in the Mitchell district of Queensland, and consisting of 51,557 acres of freehold land and 421,760 leasehold, together with 124,000 sheep, 52 cattle, and 474horses, at a satisfactory price, the purcha^srs being Messrs Watt and Coleman, of Napier, N«w Zealand.