HARVEST OUTLOOK.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXVII, Issue 3952, 8 January 1917, Page 7

HARVEST OUTLOOK.

SOUTH CANTERBURY'S POSITION.

POOR, YIELD EXPECTED

TIMARU, January 6

Mr J. Talbotj chairman of tho South Canterbury Fanners' Union, at to-day's meeting of the union submitted the following statement regarding the agricultural prospects for the coming season in South Canterbury:—

"When holding an executive meeting hero somo time ago I stated that there was a reasonable prospect of there being a good average crop of wheat, promising a yield of up to 30 bushels per acre, but that a good deal depended on weather conditions during the succeeding two or three weeks. I regret to say these conditions have been most unsatisfactory, last.month being one of the driest wo have experienced. The result is that the expectations of the beginning of the year must he largely modified, and I am of opinion that we cannot expect the.yield to be much, if any, better than that of last year. It certainly cannot exceed 25 bushels per aero. ( The 'early sown crops have plenty of straw, but they are ripening in a patchy mariner and prematurely. : Crops that should' -riot have been ready'tinder favourable cbnj ditions for at least a week" or 10 days yet are now being reaped. Any crops of wheat sown in tho spring will be light, and tho yield cannot exceed, if it can oven reach, an average of 20 bushels per acre.

" As to the oat crop, it is, comparatively speaking, a failure and will be the lightest we have had for many years; indeed, I do not remember ever seeing so poor a, one. The spring sown crop of this cereal cannot now be expected to result in a yield of moro than [ 20 bushels per acre. " The dry weather has also burned up all pasture lands and has swept away any chance of an average turnip crop, bo that the. present outlook for suitable feed for fattening stock is gloomy in tho extreme. The rainfall for tho year would have been ample if spread more evenly over the past 12 months. My gauge has registered 25 inches, as against 14 inches last year, bnt the past three months have been drier and hotter than the corresponding three months of last year."