COMMERCIAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 8117, 23 May 1906, Page 3

COMMERCIAL.

j SYDNEY WOOL SALES. Sydney, May 21. At the monthly wool sales, competition was animated, and the demand for better classes of scourcds was strong. In sympathy with London sales, prices advanced a halfpenny compared with last month.

HOMEBUSH STOCK SALES. Sydney, May 21. Cattle were in short supply at Homebush, and a stiff advance in prices resulted. Best bullocks made £lO to £ll 4s, best cows £7.10s to £8 10s.

LONDON MAE RET ADVICES. Dalgety & Company, Ltd., Wellington, have received the following cables from their London office, under date of the 17th instant:— Frozen Moat: .Demand continues for lamb, but prices arc weak. There is poor demand for both frozen mutton and beef, prices for mutton aro weak, and the market for beef is very dull, owing to lack of demand. We quote New Zealand prime crossbred lamb. Canterbury, heavy, d|d; light, 4sd; North Island lamb, heavy, 3Jd ; light, 4Jd; New Zealand prime crossbred mutton, Canterbury, heavy, 3 o-Sd; light, 3ifd; North Island, heavy, 3Jd; light, 3Jd; New Zealand prime ox beef, fores, 2nd ; hinds, 3 id.

Butter: The Copenhagen official quotation remains nnchangod, but there is a fair demand. The total imports of butter into tho United Kingdom for the week ending tho 12tli inst. amounted to Gl,ooocwt. as compared with 96,000 cwt. for the corresponding week of 1905. Since our telegram of the 10th mst., prices for French butter are lower by 4s per cwt.

Tallow: Mutton tallow in general, prices unchanged. Other descriptions at par to 3d per cwt. higher.

Rabbit Skins: Result of to-day's sales—fair to goad qualities, prices unchanged; greasy, lower by Id; suckers lower by |d to Id.

FARM AND DAIRY. In conversation with a News representative an evening or two ago, Capt. Young, Government veterinary surgeon, stated lie expected the mortality amongst calves to be pretty considerable this winter throughout the province. Owing to scant feeding and bad weather many of the calves are in wretched condition, and they are not likely to improve much with the winter month!. The consequence will be that phouid any lung disease, or other trouble peculiar to calves happen along, the animals can scarcely be expected to withstand the attacks.

Even though no disease appears it is only natural that lots o£ the weedy calves must succumb, as tliey have not tlie constituion lo see them through the rigors of the cclJ, damp, winter season usually experienced in Tarannki. Considering the state of the calf market by far too many calves are allowed to live. Farmers cannot afford to rear the numbers of ealvos they do, and give them decent food. But instead of destroying a large per ccntage oE the piiny sort, these latter are allowed to subsist on anything' -J can find, and an occasional "blow- t of slim milk. Our farmers known 'enough that there is no more ni. iment in this "skim-wash" than in sh water, yet they keep the animal. ?°'ng in the hope that they will perdi ancu ' l!ln ' a a few dollars at the s ca . son s With a season like the one i ust passed, the calves cannot be got r 'd they will have to take their chances of living till spring. And even if tliey do live tliey are pitiable looking obccts. Instead of boing weW grown and healthy, they are wretched" threecornered, shaggy brutes—carica tul 'es of their species.

And these are the creatures thai are often sold to gru/.iers to turn into beef. The grazier lias (o obtain his young stock largely from the dairy farmer, and of course he secures the best he can. But these " best " are oftentimes not a patch on the "worst" of the steer calves which the province produced half a dozen years ago as material for the beef industry. Then too, there are the heifer calves that are brought up by some farmers in this "skinflint" fashion. They are expected to grow up into profitable cow:; that will give decent returns when they in turn go to the cow yard. The farmer doos not expect his machinery to run without fuel and oil ; but a good number of them do seem to expect to make good dairy cows from calves th:if hive no constitution other than what tliey get from the meagre nourishment of skim milk and such rubbish.

Far belter returns would result if only a third of the calves were kept ind reared decently. The farmer knows this quite well, yet m liis selfish way of" take all and give none," he keeps on from year to year, allowing animals on his farm which are oll'limes nothing more nor less than harbingers of disease, and from whieh he expects, as before stilted, to gain revenue. Of a surety many farmers have (with the high land rentals) to make all the dollars availalil", but raising calves of the lciiH lo he met with on many of our farn.s is false economy, and the land which is required to graze Ihese calves could be devoted, with considerable profit, to other pi'oliLL-ts, such, for example, as hog-raising.