MAGISTERIAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXIX, Issue 9633, 13 June 1919, Page 4

MAGISTERIAL.

Mr V. G. Day, 5.M.,. presided at th>. Ashburton Magistrate's Court tlii* morning. MOTORISTS FINED, For speeding on the Ashburton Tr|&ific Bridge, Stanley Morris (Christehurch) was imed 20a, witii costs. For a similar offence at Timvald, i.. L. Emmerson. (Lisraoro) was lined 20a, with costs. A FARMER'S CLAIM. Peter Fairbairu, farmer, Ashburton. (Mr Acland), proceeded against Andreiv Young, farmer, Ashburton (Mr ..Buchanan), claiming £140, be^ng value ,of a crop of oats alleged to have been eaton, or greatly damaged, by a mobof sheep, on a section purchased from < •defendant by plaintiff on August 17, the dato fixed for possession being September 12. Mr Acland said that there 117 acres of oats purchased with the property on /August 17, and between that' date and date of possession defendant put on a mob of sheep on 70 acres:of the crop. Henry Arthur Lloyd/; -auctioneer, Ashburton, said the land had been du£ in his hands for sale by Andrew Young. A sale had been effected on August 17, and possession was fixed fbr September 12. There were two paddocks in oats. The'7o-acro crop was earlier sown, and looked promising. Nothing was said about this crop till the contract was' made, which arranged that no crop wasto bo taken off till the second payment was made. The 70 acres was to provide chaff and his own seed' requirements. When witness told Young the crop had been eaten off, he said Fairbairn was. a good fellow, and he would treat him all' right. ■ To Mr Buchanan: It was a usual custom to eat off Algerian oats in August or September if put in for that purpose. If this were done, one never got the same crop, especially in straw for chaff.' ' The early ' oat crops were the best last year if they had-not been fed off. On the 70 seres he got 'twostacks, and on the 40 acres four.stacks. Plaintiff said he purchased'the farm from Young, who would" not throw/in' the oats at £9 6s. so thY price of the farm wont up to £9 10s with the oat-— that was, 5s an acre on 582. acres. Oti the Sunday following possession witness found that the oats had been eaten off the 70 acre-. Ho saw Young;, and told him he had sold witness the onts and had no right to put the sheep on. Young said ho had. Witness had asked' Young several times since what he was going to do about the oats. When witness viewed the farm the 70-acre crop was looking the best. There were four full stacks on the 40 acres, and slioulfl have cut to 700 bags of chaff, but as threshed yielded about 1000 bushels of* oats. On the 70 acres, out of one stack he got 6£ tnns of chaff, at 24 bags to the ton. -So he reckoned to get 310 sacks of chaff out of thel 70 acres, buthe ought to have got, in his judgment, 1100 bags. To_ Mr Buchanan: He Had 34' year«r farming experience. The cost of chaffcutting was 12s a ton. There was a, grass paddock alongside the acres. Hf* had never heard of oats bfing eaten off in the spriric. He considered the quality of the soil of the 40 and 70 acres was about the same.

Mr Lloyd, recalled, said the chaff was about £;") 10? m March or April la«fc, sacks extra. Fnr pn+tinfr and parting, the'cost was about 18s to £1 a tori.

John W. Pnttfrick, farmer, said thai he helped Fpirbairn to ptack the cror» — both paddocks. There -,\vere two small stacks in the big paddock, and three big and two small ones in the 40-acre Daddock. If the f7O acres had not been i eaten off, the crop would have gone 12' i bushels per acr? better. On that light land he would not have oats eat?n off' later than July it required for crop. After the wheat crop of the previous year, he did not expect the oats in the big paddock would do so well. He considered the 70 acres slightly better land [ than the 40 acres. j William Beeg, farmer. "Wakanui, said' he built the stacks on the 40 acres. He gave corroborative evidence as regards the number of stacks. )- Ernest Youno- paid the TO-riTe bfaek was leased on shares to one Wood tlio .year ,before, when it yielded" between 1 eight or nine bushels per aore of wheat. He sowed the oats on the 70 acres, one bushel of seed to the acre. The year before he had fed about 50' acres of Algerians up to Sept-ember, and then got a fair rrop—about a ton to th& acre. The 70 acr^s were put in in April. He used to put 250 failing-mouth sheeponth'is paddock. The same custom was. carried on till the clearing sale. lit the 40 acres he sowed lewfc of manure and two bushels of seed" (Gartons) to the acre. S: H. Wood, farmer, Wakanui, said he had 50 acres of Young's land the year before last, and it had yielded 10J bushels of wheat and 14 bushels of oats. The paddock had just come out of grass. It was almost a, universal custom to feed off early Algerian oats up to September. The custom often has no effect on the yield. He saw the crop in the first week of September, and it was not then damaged by feC'dihg off. He considered the land was cropped, o;ut.

'To Mr Acland: He had cropped the land for wheat the year before and srofc 10* bushels.

Bernard" McGuire, farmer, Wakanui. said it was his opinion that feeding the oats off lightly did no harm. He had a paddock close by. and from 60 acres of similar quality land he had got 20 tons of chaff. Jt was the fourth crop. The Magistrate said there was no doubt that plaintiff was entitled to damages, and if it was 'a custom to feed off oats that were to>be cropped they should not have been fed pff sit-dosely as in this case. Ho gave judgment for plaintiff for £100 with costs (£ll Is. 6d).