THE WEATHER AND THE CROPS.

Evening Post, Volume LIV, Issue 151, 23 December 1897, Page 5

THE WEATHER AND THE CROPS.

The crops in the greater part of the Waimate County, South Canterbury, are far below the average this season, and many will not pay expenses. In numerous cases sheep have been turned in. Even at Willow Bridge, the Garden of Eden o£ the Waimate district, they have not been able to withstand the drought. Such a dry season has never been experienced at Waimate before. The Lyttefton Times reports that in the northern district of Canterbury many of the farmers have begun to feed sheep and cattle on the crops, or to plough them in, presumably to put in turnips or some other feed for winter. From Dunsandel, North Canterbury, reports state that all crops throughout the district have been a complete failure, and hundreds of acres have either been fed off with sheep or made into hay Feed is very scarce, due principally to the failure of the rape crop. Some good lines of lambs have been forwarded to Addington market, but these in most cases have been fattened on the cropp, which in ordinary years would have yielded 30 or 35 bushels an acre. Farmers are now eagerly looking forward to a good 24 hours' rain to enable them to get their turnips drilled, as without this crop the coming winter will be a very severe one on stock of all descriptions. In the far South this morning a blue sky betokens a fine day, with a shade temperature of 56deg. The same blue sky stretched over the whole of the South Island, whilst just north of Wellington the sky was overcast. Canterbury is still having its dry spell. In the Far North rain is expected, and fine weather is bespoken for the Southern portion of the colony.