WAIAU.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14563, 14 January 1913, Page 3

WAIAU.

Harvesting the autumn grain crops has becomo general in tho Waiau district, crops having come on at a rapid rate. There are borne very good specimens of crops about, anil practically all the early oats and wheat will thresn out above the average. Just out or Waiau, Mr \Y. Breckon has a splendid, crop of 3>nn oats which should yiekl anywhere in the neighbourhood ot n> bushels to the acre. Further over the hill. Messrs Netting. Threlkeld. and Banvell and Gale have both wheat and oata of exceptional merit. Mr Kennedy has a field of solid straw Tuscan wheat which for evenness and 6* ner jJ l quality is a pleasure to see. Mr -t • Foster has a largo patch of oats cut, and commenced carting and stacking it on Friday. Tho number of stooks in tho paddock indicate a good return to tho owner. Messrs Pratt and Ivevacli have crops which could better bo described, as swamp crops. Over on tho Lvndon settlements, especially Lyndon No. 2, tho farmers may congratulate themselves on having well over tho average crops, and it is difficult to pick out especially good fields without mentioning them all. The spring-sown crops will not bo so good, tho summer months having been too hot and dry to induco heavy growth, but they will all make nice 'handling crops. Farmers seem to bo going in for a new line—lucerne—and some very fair crops or this commodity are to be seen. Mr Oldman. who planted out ten acres in orchard last year, sowed garden peas in between the trees with such excellent results that tho trees aro completely hidden from view. Right at the top end of tho district, and which has the distinction of being tho northernest crop in Canterbury, is a very promising field of spring-sown Garton oats, owned by Mr John Little. Tho weather, however, is making things about as difficult and unpleasant for harvesting as it can, and the week has provided a succession of nor'-westers which havo dono much to nullify the good effect of last week's rain. Big banks of clouds have worked up in the south-west every day, only to bo driven back by tho force of the nor'-westers. It is not so much tho grain crops that want rain as the fodder crops, all of which aro languishing, more or less, for tho want of moisture. Messrs Northcoto Bros, are in the micidlo of their ewe shearing, and with this exception shearing is completed in this district.