SOUTH CANTERBURY CROPS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 740, 12 February 1910, Page 6

SOUTH CANTERBURY CROPS.

VETERAN'S VIEW. Mr. John .Barkley, . who , has.been'.farm:.: ing- in'.South..Canterbury, for forty-yijars,'. says, the talk I, of "the injury done tb' tlje 1 crops . CantorbujT by ;.the ')$: oent rains in .one ■ emphatic -word,-. "Eubl}ish."V■ ,;>-■/ ,'! .i'Tjattefly,"' •says,:'.: "the /.farmers: hav«:•' been l ': crying' out "-''' before are hurt. 1 1 • havo "boon 1 north. as fas: as 'the'-'Eahgitata ' mouth,and'»'as : far south •as Uamaru, and I saw nothing', wrong with the country;. iti.was' looking (very 1 well indeed..: On .Saturday, for ; instance, -X :.sawv Palmere Farm: (Sli. Thomson's) at: the- Levels,' and .1" can 'say, that it has never looked better to . my knowledge during the .last thirty years. His 1 'crops are .almost perfect;. and they: are simply a copy of what . I have, seen 1 .'all' over. South'- Canterbury.• ..It. l is'..true, that on ,6ome of the. lands'. 11 have' 6een, the' oats' aro a little"discoloured,' but the .'wheat is of fine 'quality, and the sprouting, so 'much- talked 1 about; vis. not, worth noticing. ' ,;; :'.-j "The fact, is 'that .there are a', lot .of young-farmers' in-South .Canterbury/n'pw who don't' know' what", a bad- season is. They have bought up the . land 'at high prices; and axe, crying out because they have had a little : : raini that'in past ' yearswould have 1 been; regarded . in; the light: of: av'shqwerl.,'' Unlike the older.'settlers, these young men., don't know 'liow 'to take eveii.a small allowance.of gruel; and they do:themselves ; hajin"by decrying'the quaUty of '.their, own .wheat. Many;of •them have/come' into; ; the:' towns ' telling the merchants - that'their wheat, has been spoiled—a thing that 'the/merchants wore 1 ready.enough to tell them ' theihselvta.. Now, when the 1 young . fanner comes .in .to;'say .-that hei.has- .been: unduly.:pessimistic, ; and::that he finds , that ! his - wheat has not been spoiled,- the merchant won't ,be so-forgetful as to fail to remind.- him of his statement ; made. a. few. weoks back."