RURAL RIDES.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20215, 18 April 1931, Page 10

RURAL RIDES.

SOUTHERN CONDITIONS.

A BAD HARVEST. ; (By H.A.M.) IS'o. XXIX. Though it is a well recognised fact that conditions south of Dunedin are weeks later than in Canterbury, one could be accused for imagining , that this year they. are a whole season 'behind*.. A:few hours by car are sufficient to take one right out of tho autumn into the spring* The brown of the hills north of Palmerston give way south of Dunedin to a vivid green reminiscent of a Canterbury springtime. It is a wonderfully striking panorama that opens out to the traveller from the Saddle Hill—the famous Taieri Plain, a - succession of chessboard fields stretching b£tck to the hills and all clothed in springlike garb. "The Taieri" since the earliest days of Otago settlement has been synonomou? Avith the best the Dominion could provide in the way of agricultural land. Fot some years much of it threatened to become derelict through flooding, but better weather behaviour in the hinterland and flood protection bank® on the Plain have restored this rich spot to its original productivity. A Wet Autumn. However pleasant to the'eye as the country is at the present time, it has not been so satisfying to the farmers. The summer and autumn have been the wettest for years. Everywhere pasture is abundant, with particularly fine turnip crops, but there has been more cropping in South Otago this season than for years, and the wet, muggy conditions and lack of.of sunshine have dealt severely with the crops. The stable price of wheat and the good market for oats last season and the exceptional yields encouraged the seeding of & much increased area this year. This was; a Vyefcy satisfactory development, particularly as far as wheat was concerned, as the growing of this cereal was tending to disappear altogether. It is not improbable: that the present experience will operate in that direction, for practically no. crop ? s yet stacked and some of it is still to cut. Many fields of wheat are to be seen in stook that appear as if thpy would average from 45 to over .10 bushels' to the acre, but in quite a number of cases the sheaves are blackening. Down through the Miltdn district there are frequent/instances of this state of, affairs. Yields as a result must suffer,and quality will be far from milling grade. Much of the wheat obviously has been., in the stook for weeks. /.' a £ovr days of j6stijerbury ..nor the case. ••

The oat crops are not in such a much of this crop is grown for chaff for local sale and for use on the farm, The tractor has not such a vogue in South Otago as in Canterbury, and horse feed has ( to be. pr9vided, 3 ..the of "Jaha -Sevoteff to ■ tarnipsJVandiS-gre en feed. There will no doubr be deal of discoloured •chaff,' as \anything.,,in the way of a bright sample cannot 'ge expected from .'crops still Oub'iii -.the ,**hiddie, pf April Some, exceptional fields' of. oats meet the eye—equal in weight ,tQ. Canterbury's . with ordinary luck there wtiuld have been- *a- surplus for | export Ho northern., centres/ " | ' * Notable Boot Crops. \ t i The conditions that- b6en ao dis-, 'to cereal growers have j 'operated, the other Ivay in the. matter pf pasture and root crops. Feed-^s' plentiful; -both of grass and- "turnips. All classes of stock look particularly well, and there should be no misgiving in the matter of sheep going well through the winter. South Qtaga 7 is tho centre of the lime produ&ngf In* dustry, and the face of the ' country has been aujazingly transformed as a result of the steadily increasing,, use of lime both in arable crop9'3i&i£ tf» top-dressing..;,-Ridges, which or so ago/trould a : J rf}jeiep to the acre are. ri&w well clothed,;,Srith a deep ri«h green and are carrying mora i than double the stock of a few years back. ! 1 .r: ! ■ i

The Clutha district is famedfor its swedp..growing capacity, qiul'.A record achieved some years ago hws.\Btitf' to be 1 equalled. A field of considerable area | gyew flyweight of 80 ton'S--to the acre. 1. aitd' 1 apportion of it was'sold'for fattening at £27ian <, ttere!.,\ 1)s _ jj J ' At the commencement of last freezing season trouble occurred amongst the i butchers at -the Balclutha Freezing Works. About 30 . butchers and' their assistants downed tools and walked out. But' they made the mistake of overlooking the»fact that.this foas a t country district, and that there were young fellofrs on the farms who could kill a- sheep just aB well, if not as quickly, as .themselves. {There was an abundance of this labour available, and in no time, the board Hvas at maximum, and the-,lQca\ men are holding the fort to-day. "In the hard times that have since developed, the district, workers have no occasion to regret the strike of i their predecessors.. Incidentally , the -works are likely to put up a record this season. At present 3000 sheep and lambs. l are being put I through daily, and it' is estimated that tho total for the season will reach 300,000 ■ carcases, or approximately 60,000 carcases more than last season.

DISEASE? CURI/D BY SHEEP.

The belief that cortain diseases could be cured by t walking through a flock of sheop ; isof . vory ancient origin. The attempted cure of consumption or some other was recommended by an. erstwhile Archbishop of Dublin, who himself practised it when young. For pulmonary complaints , ( the principle was perhaps the same as that" ot following a plough, sleeping in a room over a powhouse, breathing the diluted smoke of a limekiln, all jn common use. about the end of the I eighteenth century, when the study of gases was the favourite branch" of chemistry. " A friend of mine," wrotp a scribe in 1851, ''formerly met JDr. Beddoea riding up Park street iii Bristol almost concealed by a vast bladder tied to his horse's moutin He said he was-trying an experiment with oxygen on a broken-winded horse.' •Afterwards, finding, that oxygen. did ; not answer, he. very wisely tried the gas most opposite, to it in nature.'*