RURAL TOPICS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9133, 4 July 1908, Page 5

RURAL TOPICS.

(By "Agricola.") THE WEATHER. On the whole the tpmperature has been lower this week. A moderate amount of rain has fallen, and this morning (Friday) a hard frost was experienced, ice being a considerable thickness on pools of water. The Tararuas presented a fine picture clothed in their winter mantle of snow. The ground so far is not saturated with moisture, and at Te Ore Oro(Wangaehu) many of the underground drains are still dry. The soil being for the season of the year in such a dry' condition, and consequently warm, accounts for the continual growth of grass. In some localities the crops have not made much headway recently. The farmers are well forward with their work, and a greater urea of land has been early sown with cereals than during any previous season in the Mastarton district.. From the out-district3 encouraging accounts still come to hand of the satisfactory condition of pastures and stock. THE PKICE OF WOOL.

The returns of many of the small flock-owners in the W'airarapa for their wool sold in London during the May series of sales are very discouraging. The average piice for fleece is about 51 to 5Jd, pieces, bellies and locks being proportionately low—34d, 3d and 2d respectively—lambs wool ranged from, 6&d to as low as 4d per It). One settler informs me that' he netted £l5O less for his clip from 600 sheep this season than last. Such an experience is by no means singular this year. DAIRY STOCK. It has been prognosticated that the price of dairy cows will reach high values, there being a scarcity of them. This seems to be borne out by the recent result of the sale of Mr P. Quirk's herd of about 100 head of crossbred Ayrshire and Jersey cows at Mangamaire. Ay'rshires brought frcm £6 to £lO 15s, Jerseys £9 10s to £l7. Holsteins £6 5s to £9, inferior grades from £4 up to £6. THE WOES OF A BACK-BLOCK SETTLER.

A bush farmer who has been resident away back (yet only some 22 miles fromi'thi3 town) for seventeen years, complains bitterly that even now he has only a pack track for the last few miles be lore reaching hi 3 homestead. Seventten years is cer-. tainly a long period to wait for a road, and yet so close to civilisation ! He says that the hardship is intensified in that he pays special rates on loans raised to metal the roads used by wealthy and more fortunately situated ratepayers, and that further, as the metal wears out he is called upon,'again and again, to assist to re-metal the roads, while he obtains nothing for' the road (pack-track) near his holding. The man at the "far end" uf a ruad, unless ha be a Councillor, invariably suffers in this respect. Hut the County authorities should see that a more equitaole distribution of money takes place. The case quoted does not stand alone, and many settlers suffer in a like manner. VEGETABLE MATTER IN WOOL. This subject has been a good deal written about and commented on, but as it is one of much importance to wool-growers perhaps they will excuse a further reference to it. One of the latest phases is that the Amen can buyers of wool are making a firm stand, and in such a manner 'as will necessitate attention being given "ty it, The wuoi merchants' have notified the Prime Minister of the Australian Commonwealth that they have agreed to buy no wool bound with sisal, or twine used as binder twine, the fibres from which cling to the wool and interfere with the process of manufacture, causing damage and loss. An agreement to this effect has been signed by all the leading merchants in the United States, pledging themselves not to buy wool so bound, was forwarded to Mr A. Deakin. The Yankee means business, and this ultimatum should go a long way towards inducing woolgrowers to take more care in packing their clips. Fortunately the practice of "binding" fleeces with twine or string of any description has become obsolete in the Dominion, but there are several other sources from which wool becomes contaminated with vegetable matter which attention has been directed to. They may be described as of two classes, i.e., vegetable substances in their natural condition, such as burr (piripir:), grass seeds, thorns—vegetable fibres in more or less artificial association. These comprise the first list, and may be said to be- almost out of means of control to prevent being mixed with the wool. Large sums of money (in one instance £60,000) have been spent in devising methods to remove such foreign substances. But the most effective method has been found to "carbonise" such substances by the use of acids—a practice which cannot out deteriorate the wool fibre—and is onlj resorted to with inferior wool. In the second class of fibres may be mentioned prices of bagging, rope, or twine used in tying fleeces, pieces of sewing twine, shreds of bagging, etc., gathered up on the floor of shearing sheds, warehouses, or from bales cut open while sampling. The best remedy for the evil is an improved wool pack and sewing twine, and every effort is being made in England to produce such articles. At a conference held in London in October, 1907, of representatives of wool-growers of Australia and New Zealand, London selling brokers, Bradford top-makers, German combers, Roubaise (French) Chambers of Commerce, and other bodies, the fallowing recommendations were made: —The adoption of such a standard pack, made of good, clean, hard twisted jute or hemp yarn, carefully sewn so that the pack does not need to bo "cut down" at, the corners in the baling press, and provided with a separate piece of canvas for the top of the bale, would do a vast deal to mitigate the evil; the systematic emptying of the pack before it is put into the press. It is found that frequently bits of the canvas and ends of sewing twine come inside the new packs from the factory. Care should bo taken to see tint these are shaken out; in the shearing shed, in the classing and packing of wool, the utmost care should bo used to prevent loose bits of twine, rope, or bagging coming near the wool, or being swept up with wool from the floor; the

tying of fleeces ought to be avoided 'entirely; all straw, etc.,'should be carefully removed from the shearing place before shearing commences; in stores and warehouses where bales are exposed for sampling, the necessary opening of the tare should be done so as to damage , it as ii*tle as possible. Bales . should be opened at the seama ty j cutting the sewing twine; and all frayed edges and loose bits should be removed and destroyed