COUNTRY NEWS AND NOTES.

Press, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14580, 5 December 1912, Page 4

COUNTRY NEWS AND NOTES.

JOTTINGS FOR FARMERS.

In the North Canterbury district, one or two complaints have been recently made of dogs having worried sheep. In one mstanco the dog was shot;

AMBERLEY.

A very largo and representative gathering of residents of Amberley and the surrounding districts'" was held on Tuesday evening in the Library room, to consider tho applications received from medical men for the appointment of a medical practitioner. From tho applications Br. Perry, of Mangonui, Auckland, was asked to accept the position.

RANGIORA

Tho Friendly Societies' excursion to Cass takes place to-day if the weather is favourable. .

KAIAPOI

>Tho salary voted by the Kaiapoi Technical School managers to tho secretary was £25, and not £125 as stated yesterday.

DUNSANDEL. J

Tho first anniversary toa meeting} and concert in connection with tho' Dunsandol Methodist Church was held in the Town Hall on Tuesday night. A long and varied programmo was well received by a large audience. . 'Jl'ho , Roy. Mr Joughin occupied the chair, j The following wero tho performers: — Misses N, McMillan, E. Johnson and ■ Chamberlain, Mrs Doak, Messrs Brown, H. Johnson, Peryman, and Rev. C. H. Olds. Two anthems were given 'by tho combined Presbyterian and Methodist choirs. The accomnanists wcrQ* Mrs Hunt, Misses M. Sherrard and E. Johnson.

ASHBURTON.

Miss Hazel Campbell has presented to the Ashburton Agricultural and Pastoral Association, an oil painting of a harvest scene at Springburn. Mr F. Frampton, of Seaview, has also made a presentation to tho Association of a framed photographic. picture, j showing twenty-seven different breeds of sheep.

SOUTH CANTERBURY. I

A South Canterbury correspondent writes:—My report includes the districts from Peel Forest to the sea, botwoon tho Rangitata and Opihi rivers, and to give the best news first it may be said that, the paddocks have seldom contained so great a quantity of splendid feed; the hill pastures are green and flourishing instead of being brown and scorched as at this period in recent years; and as a natural consequence, all the stock is in excellent condition. Never wa» a spring season more productive of luxuriant Sowth. ©specially on tho lands near c hills and along the course of the ' Kakahu above Hilton, where tha chief difficulty of the fanner is, not to find feed for his flocks, but to find enough •heop to prevent the iem trow going to, wast*. Such a season ia esactly 1 suited to the, light soil of tho farms between Orari and Rangitata, where tho whola country looks particularly prosporou*. Hero for a space thoro is a break in tha good news; which lapse, by norao people is put down to tho account of our famous badweather prophet. As a fanner pat it "He never lets up on us at all." The gloomy days, cold southerly winds, and .constant rains, havo had an ill effect npon tho crops, which in rsry*__»ny place} are becoming yellow ahd^Jlfc.„ healthy for want of sunshmo and heat At this moment there is every sign of an exceptionally late barvest, andnnlcss we are given a longish period of clear hot weather, the corn crops will ' bo below the average of or-»

dinary—very ordinary—years. Farm work, particularly tho operation of turnip sowing, progresses by fits and starts, and with extreme slowness; for the heavy lands aro very wet, and it seems to be tho general'rule that ono drying day shall bo succeeded by a couple of tho opposite kind. To continue this woeful tale a little further, it is impossible under the circumstances to check tho growth of weeds, and spurry or Californian thistles aro to bo noticed in many fields where previously they wero unknown. A great amount of shearing has been completed on the plains, but the work was yet general all over the district—on tho hill runs it has hardly begun—and at present its finish is delayed out of sight. However, putting ono thing against another—somo people found it impossible to sow such an acreage of corn .as they had contemplated, but they had a record lambing all the same—there is no cause for an unduly gloomy view; rather wo must hope that' some sunshine may improve tho existing state of affairs. Fruit-growing prospects appear to bo unusually good; in some orchards thero is *i scarcity of plums, but tho apple crop seems «verywhere to be most abundant.