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FARM NOTES. ,

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FARM NOTES. We shall commence our clover harvest this week. The crop is not an average, but the copious rains of Sunday last. will have vastly improved it. In spite of the thunderstorm, the surface of the soil had barely been moistened though the foliage and vegetation had received a bath. But Sunday's storm was soft and soak- ing, and on Monday everything looked fresh and green. The country, indeed, is now look- ing delightful, but it is difficult, if not impos- sfble to make a season nearly a month late a prosperous one for tenant farmers. The water-courses and springs Were nearly dried up, and the hillsides, particularly, were bare cad burnt up. Wheat is going up with a run, and in some of the great towns the price of the quartern loaf has been advanced by a halfpenny. We now have beef and mutton up a penny per pound above the corresponding price last year, and bread a halfpenny per four-pound* loaf. It is difficult to explain the rise m wiieat. except that our markets are entirely regulate by American supplies. Beef, as I have before mentioned, has appreciated entirely owing to our supplies from Argentina being cut off, with no immediate prospect of renewal, due to the outbreak of foot and mouth disease. We appear to be in for a cycle of high prices for commodites all round- The war has dis- located trade, and the disturbance will probably be aggravated as the winter approaches. The nation is fairly busy and. wonderfully prosper- ous, but the back-wash or reaction is as certain to follow as the night follows the day. Mill teaches us that the fat years are succeeded by lean years. Dear coals mean a restricted output of manufactured commodities and a de crease in the spending capacities of the masses <4. the people. The slump is certain but when? Who shall say? When I was a boy, farmers were accustomed to say "Ah, a war will sett, us all right." That was in the days before American competi- tion was an accomplished fact, and when butter was 2s and 2s 6d per pound, and everything else dear in proportion. Then a war meant penury for the poor—meant absolute starva- tion. Now a war means increased taxation, and a temporary stiffening of prices, but on the whole the farmer does not suck much advan- tage out of it. With the produce of the world brought swiftly to our doors, how should it be otherwise? But even in North Wales something more might be done for the protection of the producer and the consumer. I refer to the lax fashion io which the Adulteration Acts are adminstered. Prosecutions are infrequent, and you will not tell me it is less here than in other districts. Fraud is now son common that the prices of margarine, and butter do not bear the relationship they should do. Tons of it are sold as butter in this country, with the result that the price of the genuine article is much depreciated. The higher profit is a great tempation, but it should be made more risky than it is to promote the trade. You may be interested to read the considered judgment of "The Field" on the quality gener- ally of the Black Cattle at the Royal Society's Show :—"The hardy horned blacks from North Wales have (says the writer) improved wonder- fully in recent years, and the representation stalled this week was extremely satisfactory. In the senior bull class, Mr R. M. Greaves came to the front with Madoc Boy, a sire of enormous scale for his age and well shaped, while Col. H. Platt's second winner, Plas Caradog, is a well- grown two-year-old of remarkable substance, and Lord Harlech's Dreyfus stood reserve. Col. Platt met with better fortune in the yearling bull class, which he headed creditably with Madryn Berw, a shapely home-bred, son of EDyfwr oif exceptional promise. Mr Greaves followed closely with the level Kopje, Lord Harlech again getting reserve with Ensign. In the cow class also Col. Piatt obtained the red rosette, the beautiful, level cow Queen of Spades II., winning handsomely even from such formid- able rivals as Mr Greaves's Tremadoc, and Mr W. E. Oakeley's Twilla, which followed in the order named. The tables were turned in the two-year-old heifer class, however, Mr Greaves taking the ■lead with the shapely Brynywern, and Mr Oakeley following second with Pyrites II., Col. Platt's Madryn Queen having to accept the reserve card. Further diversity was given to the results by the victory of Mr Oakeley in the yearling heifer class, his pretty Llywyn, by the noted Hwfa, coming clearly to the front, with Col. Piatt's Traffoi III. second, and Mr Greaves's Drift reserve. For the week ended June 16, there were seventeen outbreaks of sheep scab in Flintshire and three in Denbighshire. The North Wales district appears, however, to be quite free from fjreshi outbreaks iof swine fever, though the regulations in certain districts are still in force.

A DAUGHTER'S DEVOTION.

[No title]

LOCAL AND DISTRICT NEWS.

¡.COLWYN BAY.

DOLGELLEY.

FESTINIOG.

HuL^HKAD. (

^ LLANDUDNO.

¡LLANRWST.

|RHYL. II

MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR NEARI BALA.

CARNARVON BOROUGH PETTY SESSIONS.

CARNARVON COUNTY PETTY SESSIONS.

STEAMERS IN COLLISION AT HOLYHEAD.

LLANDUDNO SAILING CLUB. -

[No title]

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LLANDUDNO AND DISTRICT NOTES.

HOLYHEAD PETTY SESSIONS,