WEATHER AND CROPS

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 40, 17 February 1915, Page 3

WEATHER AND CROPS

There is every indication that the crops in the Ashburton County will thresh out much better than was expected. A threshing mill-owner who has been operating in the Lyndhurst district for a week or so told a Guardian reporter that the crops he had so far dealt with had all threshed out at least 10 bushels to the acre better than the owners had estimated. One wheat crop which was expected to yield at the most 30 bushels threshed out at 41 bushels. The oat crops are also doing particularly well. The Southland correspondent of the Christchurch Star states that the dairy industry is holding out extra well. A few factories are lamenting over the sale of their cheese in the early part of the season now that the price has advanced, but such should not be { as at the time of sale the prices obtained were bound to be paying ones. The sheep on the back stations are now out on the Takitimu and surrounding ranges. The feed there is plentiful, but can only be had this season of the year, so owners of flocks have to make hay -while the sun shines, so to speak, but the advantage is that feed on the lower levels is being preserved for the winter. The wheat and oat crops, from the view that can be obtained from the train between Dunedin and Invercargill, present a fairly promising appearance on the whole. The crops, particularly between Gore and Invercargill, are very good, but in other localities are somewhat short in the straw. Grass crops are very good in Brydone and the districts close by. One farmer has been offered £2000 for his wheat crop as it stands. The area is something over 100 acres. Buyers of fat stock are operating freely, as high as 20s being paid for lambs, 20s for fat ewes, and up to 26s for fat wethers. Fat cattle, too, are in demand. Harvesting, says the Ashburton Guardian, may now be said to be pretty general all over the 'Ashburton County, and, although in some districts the work is completed, with the exception of threshing, in other portions harvest hands are just getting into the thick of it. The districts alongside the seaboard are about through, and coming nearer inland comparatively little standing crop remains. Up to Jthe present stage farmers could hardly have had better weather conditions to garner the grain, and in the greater number of centres the work has gone on without a single stoppage caused by the weather. In the early part of the harvest season the weather was excessively hot, and violent nor'-westerly winds prevailed day after day. During the last few days these conditions have given place to milder weather. It is now generally conceded that yields are turning out ranch better than anticipated. Comparatively little threshing has been done so far, and the mills are just getting into the swing, of the work. The dry weather has~hit dairy farmers fairly badly. Pastures are quite parched up, except up along the foothills, and unless a good fall of rain comes soon there will be a disastrous shortage of feed in the autumn. There has been plenty of labour offering so far, and the demand for harvesting hands has been much below the average. Harvest may now be said to be in full swing throughout South Canterbury (says the Timara Herald). The yield promises to be much better than was anticipated a couple of months ago. The milk supply at the Awarua, Winton, Lochiel, Boggy Burn, and Browns factories is keeping up wonderfully well, and very satisfactory shipments of cheese are being regularly despatched. It is stated that & farmer in the Geraldine district has threshed out a crop of wheat from the stook averaging 60 bushels to the acre. The wheat crop in the Taieri should yield a fair average, and the Advocate understands that some of it has already been sold at 6b. Shortage of labour for turnips and harvesting is reported. From all parts of the Otautau district splendid crops of both oats and wheat are being reported, while no complaints arc to be heard in relation to the turnip crop, present indications for an ample supply of winter feed being splendid. In fact "the man with the growl" has this year no possible grounds to growl on. It is stated by the Fairfax correspondent of the Southland Times that crops are greatly improving in growth, as the mild weather is having a beneficial effect on them. Those crops which a month ago looked sickly have now revived both in length of straw and length of head. All those who have antes fo>* •p.wlino'

purposes have, a fair future assured them, as to all appearance it will yield well. Farmers are fortunate this year (says the Palmerston Times) that blight has not yet appeared among potato crops. Even in districts where last year the Irish blight ruined entire paddocks, there is not so far the slightest sign of the scourge. It is doubtful, even if a warm and moi3t autumn be experienced, that crops will 'lose materially from blight this year, a state of affairs due, no doubt, to the early prevalence of drying winds. With the showers last week there was great growth in grain and root crops in the Tapanui district. Threshing mills will start on the grass as soon as it is dry.