IN SOUTH CANTERBURY.

Press, Volume L, Issue 14909, 6 March 1914, Page 5

IN SOUTH CANTERBURY.

THE TOUCH OF AUTUMN. A South Canterbury correspondent writes: — In sunny, golden weather, which tells only too surely of autumn time, we are still gathering up the remnants of harvest, and preparing to receivo tho promised frost. To the eastern sky each evening there is a red rimming, which in May we should call a frost line, but as yet we have not ventured on the words; only the gardening man meditates if he shall cover up his cucumbers, and in the open fireplace of ,the dining-room there are blazing logs, which seem to satisfy a general need.

As "to that belated harvest, elsewhere by Opuha bridge it is not even reaped, and still dotted over the,districts between the Opihi and Rangitata are fields of grain in stook. On the whole it must be written as a very average harvest, for in some places they call it good, whilo in others the farmers have not polite words to express their thoughts. Gradually we are learning that tbe abandoned crop is not altogether an exceptional case, and next the Waihi river, between Geraldine and Winchester, is another instance; a fine field of wheat, so badly "laid" that it was reckoned hopeless, and thus remains. It is to be supposed that if iv such a case there is any remedy, it is tho herd of pigs which on this wheat en diet is "doing fino." Therefore we are bidden still cheerfully to "think of good fat bacon, son, and hopo for the best.'' And I regard this as a truly happy idea. From Winchester seawards there is a multitude of stacks, each field containing its fair or more than fair quantity. and so by "Trevenna" to tho Clandeboyo bridge. Here was . threshing machine busily at work, and a sorrowing owner who mourned a yield of over fifty bushels of oats to the acre, where he had expected a hundred, and perhaps ono more "to mako weight." The crop has been out since tho first rains, and the middles of the sheaves have rotted black, so they are just knocking the oats off the outsides, to pay expenses. Said my companion. who lives in the hill country near Mount Peel, "Well, he has got fifty bushels to the acre of pretty good oats, which is exactly what T have wanted for ages past: 60 why tho," etc., etc. You can t please everybody, as I have said before. "_ ithin a mile of the Clandeboyo bridge, several clover crops were being stacked in first-class order, and we heard no owner grumbling at the output of his field. "There's some seed in that lot, anyway," said the forker, as he heaved a last great load upon the stack; and, "silence gives consent," there was no dissenting voice. Passing inland to the Kakahu hill country, there are crops yet in stook as before, but in most instances the grain seems little damaged by its long sit-out, and everywhere there is hurry to put it safely in stack. Kakahu like other places, has worked hard to make up for a short supply of labour, 1 but here, as everywhere, it is evident that many hands make rapid work. Belated like other businesses, the owe shearing is at last finished on most _>f the hill runs, and the lambs arc coming down from their summer quarters in good condition, so again many people are pleased. The matter of winter sheep feed is not quite satisfactory, for complaints increasingly are numerous of the diamond-backed moth, which, "judging from the root crops in the Woodbury and Pleasant Valley districts, must severely cause a serious harm. Orchards are promising an abundant yield, hut the dry weather is,o. using much of the fruit to drop: and where, oh where, is a market? Ah. a cider factory. Now, from whom in th-eworld are we going to get that?

For one more note, blackberries are in this year an enormoiis crop: nuts also —the two go together—but the third of our autumn trio, those mushrooms, have as yet made their appenrjince in few places, and the re-ason for this omission is not quite plain.