THESEASONIN SOUTHLAND

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue LXVIII, 27 June 1912, Page 6

THESEASONIN SOUTHLAND

An Otago Daily Times reporter was told the other day, by a gentleman had just returned from Southland, that the Southlanders had had almost incessant rain since October last, with ■fche exception of a few weeks after Christmas. The result was that it had heen extremely difficult to gather crops, and in some odd cases sfcooks still remained in the field unharvested. The ground had received such a soaking that stock could not be profitably turn■ed even into crops where this was deem«d to be most advisable, and the result liad in many cases been disastrous. The grass all through the country had held •out well, however, that having been the : redeeming feature, but it had not been . so nutritious as usual, the conseqeuence i^^t^ng that, in order to get their lambs to the usual weight, farmers had to Jkaep them for five or six weeks longer than was customary. In addition, although the bulk of the sheep retained their condition, they' did not fatten rapidly. Generally the turnips also averaged about haif-ci-ops, and in many districts had been a rank failure, though these remarks did not apply to some few more favored localities, where splen- : .did crops had been secured, and these, up till now, had not been broken into, the grass having held out so well. Under these circumstances tha country v could not be heavily stocked, and when the turnips were exhausted, as they would be before September, the probabilities were that fat stock would be ?-scaree, so that it was extremely unhkeJy that Southland would be able to -help the Dnnedin market through the winter m the matter of fat stock, as it tad done--last year.