Agricultural Department.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume III, Issue 128, 14 November 1901, Page 1

Agricultural Department.

»■■ 0 The Secretary forA«nculture, reporting on the agricultural yields for 1899* 1900, and 1900 01, indie tea that the yield of wheat has decreased by 2,054,744 bushels. Oat* chow an increase of 2,076,000 buif-elr, and ©the* products nh>.w decreases as follows: Barley 557.491 bushel . rye 21,045

bu->h*lg, 22,879 bu»h*k beans ifi 524 bushels, rye tfr<ss 5T7 776 bu-hj-s, cocksfoot 5,625 142 lbs, po-atoos 53,082 torn. Thi appare-it «urplus of wheat at the «nd of February last was 5.550,000 bushels. The area of whe it contioues to decrease rapidly, and unless the price materially inceasesa far her rediction may be looked f >r. Th-re !■■ a considerable in'-re*pe both in area and yield of o,tt«, the ax port of whkh amounted to 6,208,694 bushels, valued at £565,640, more than bait cf which were sent to South Africa

Since the but report, depots for the receiving, dressing, and, p.icUing of poultry hy experts appointed by »b« Depart ent Tiive been established at Auckland, Welington, Christchtirch, and Dunedin. A considerable busineH has been d >ne, a large prnpi.-tion of the output going to Sou h Africa, and tht returns b«ing t>ati*f*otory. A. few poultry were shipped to London, but the prices do not compare favourably with those obtained at. the Cape. The Department continues to dre«s aud pack the birds, and to provide cases and storage at" the uniform rate of 4d per bird.

The pa»t season, eaya the report, has been a most favourable one so fur as abundance of grass for the ww« was concerned, but the continued cold, bleak winds which prevailed more or lesg »hr the spring and summer were much TR-tinst the yield of milk. The output shown a considerable increase, as the fallowing entries prove :—Butter—--18991900, IM. 782 c wt, valued at £693,70) ; 1900 1901. 183,553ewt, valued at £79o,loo—increase 22,761 cwt, valued at £96,349. Chee»e -1899-1900, 98,001 ' ow, v.l-i d nt £208.258; 19001901, 10&.152cwt, value I nt £24B,BB3—increase ll.lSlcwt, valued at £40,625. The in««pe<--t on and registration of all dairies supplying milk for local consumption has been tnke > over by the Department. Reports show that a large number of riairie3 were in an insanitary condition, but the owner- in instances willing* ly complied w th the inspector's euggestions for improvements. The shipments are as follows: Mutton : 18991900, 2 066,805 carcases, 53 204 cwt legs and pieces, v*lua £1,160.073; 190019C1, 1,731,444 car. caae9, 56.165 wt legs and pieces valued at £1,076,573. Lamb: 1599 1901, 1.272,348 carcases, valued at £603,722; 1900 1901, 1.353,272 carcases, valued at £655,696. The cause of the decrease ia, rout'on, Favs the report, i» somewhat difficult t» account for. It is most probab'y due to the great demand for ewes for breeding. The increase of iamb is likely to be maintained. The quality of the mutton and lamb shipped was quite up to theaverag*. The quantity of beef exported was :—> 1899-1900.238,234 cwt. valued at £269,450 1900 1901395,792 iwt, valued at £236 232. The export o' so much beef has raited the price of f*ts and for ™e time past the average price of good bu >'.ck<3 has been from £1 tc £1 5 per 100'b. The supply "f w.-.-ll gr >wn sto es is very UmitHd, and the pic? ruling for such leave little margin f«r fattening

With regard to the inspection of meat and slaughtering place:, tbe report states that the reports furnished by the inspectors on many of the slvght ring »ilao«8 a*e not at all. satisfactoy, cleirly show ng that m<ny of the lonal bodies have been most lax i«i th-ir endeavours to tn c-arry oit the provisions of the <ld Act. As soon as pos ib'e inspectors will he placed in all th« export abattoirs to insoeat the meat, slauyhtred, also to see (hat if is properly labelled with the offical label. The sectary for Agriculture Urgts ihe importance of something being done in tbe matter of meat markt» g, au'l he points out that if our meat we?e b>-an<led the selling in the English market of inferior mutton anil lamb as New Zealand produce would b« stopped £'• once. The total increasa ot *heep for th* year was 632 589, ad the tctal in the colony on 50th April was 20,186,784. Only once before (in 1894) has th« number of shepp in the colony reached over 20,000.000. The number of cattle* return'd at 3l«t Oc ober, 1900, w»a 1,256,680, the net increate for the year being 34,549. The increase of horses was 4355 and of swine 1224.