PROSPECTS BAD

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 91, 14 October 1943, Page 6

PROSPECTS BAD

FARMING FACES DISASTER

The effect of the abnormally wet spring following on a wet winter on farming operations round Wellington is described by an official of the De-, partment of Agriculture as nothing short of disastrous. ""The Department states that, taking the Dominion as a whole, at has been generally speaking a very bad spring, the only favoured exception being Southland. All the returns received to date by the Department indicate that there has been a considerable decrease in the butterfat yield compared with last year. Lambing has been seriously affected by the adverse weather conditions throughout the North Island and - in Canterbury, percentage losses in many areas being very high. All seasonal operations on the land have been held up, and the spring sowing of wheat in Canterbury is very much behindhand. Many crops, such as peas, in Canterbury and Nelson have had to be res'own. ' The .trials of the amateur horticulturist need no emphasis. Repeated exhortation to dig for victory have had no effect, not because of the obstinancy of those exhorted, but because the perpetual saturated state of the ground has made digging practically impossible. Last weekend, when the weather cleared temporarily, was a time of feverish activity in many gardens, but the optimists who managed to get j some seeds sown in anticipation of later getting vegetables, which one is assured will otherwise be unprocurable, will now find that much of their labour was wasted. The seeds in many cases will have been washed away completely or buried too deeply for successful germination. The few that are left have every prospect of just rotting in the ground. The outlook for the home gardener who is trying to do his bit to overcome the vegetable shortage is indeed black. KEENLY FELT AT MAKARA. Flooding has become one of the least disturbing effects of the excessive rainfall in the Makara area, where any floods of recent times have not been nearly so heavy as was the experience a few years ago. The continuous rain, however, is having serious consequences, which are costing the farmers dearly.

"It is the worst season I have known since I came back from the last war in 1919," remarked Mr. W. J. Trotter, one of the well-known Makara farmers, when discussing the serious plight of the farming community generally. "I have never experienced anything so bad in my time so far as feed for stock is concerned, and I am told that the position is much worse in some other parts of the country."

The dry autumn and the continued rainfall since July, it was stated, had caused big losses of stock, which suffered heavily from the inadequacy of feed. A bad spring season had accounted for very poor hay crops in the Makara district last year, the yield being about only half the amount of tonnage to the acre than was the case the previous year. The prospects for hay crops this year were regarded as "practically nil," the farmers being forced to keep the stock in the paddocks that would, with otherwise suf« ficient quantities of feed, be closed for a time and cropped. The whole countryside was saturated, arid on the low ground much feed was lost through the grass being trodden into the ground by the stock. Many of the higher levels were also very soggy/ a condition which all

round held up the preparing of ths land for sowings. SHORTER MBLK SUPPLY. Stock which had come through, the ! winter was in- low condition-, and, therefore, the production was low. This meant that supplies of milk were affected to the extent that some of the nearby -farmers were unable to supply the Municipal Milk Depot, as was their usual practice. As an illustration it was stated that one farm, which at this time last year was providing over 100 gallons per day, was down in milk production by about 30 gallons per day. If that were a sample of the general position, it would seem that a serious situation had developed so far as the needs of the community were concerned. Sheep farming had also been heavily hit by the persistence of the bad weather. The ewes had wintered very badly and, through lack of feed, the sheep were in low condition. The experience with lambing had been dis<astrous, it being estimated that at least 20 per cent, of the lambs died. That percentage was much highea? in some cases.