THE WEATHER AND THE CROPS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCVII, Issue 11188, 9 February 1897, Page 6

THE WEATHER AND THE CROPS.

Rain set in about two o’clock yesterday afternoon, and had not ceased at an early hour this morning. Qur Oxford correspondent ' writes : Thanks to last Thursday’s rain, supplemented by a bountiful fall last night (with’ a prospect of more) our pastures, which have bornesuch a sombre brown colour, are green. Autumn feed-will be fairly plentiful, and good rootcrops may be,confidently expected. The rain will interfere to soiiio extent with hai'vest operations,but as probably less than one-fourth of the grain remains afield no serious loss is likely t® occur. Prom observation and gossip with farmers and machine-owners I am convinced that the general yield will be beyond both in yield and quality. I have seen some really excellent samples of wheat, especially Tuscan. In oats some of the late crops are pretty heavy, probably 40 bushels to the acre, but I cannot say that I have yet handled a good plump sample. Our Timaru correspondent writes : —The weather has been somewhat damp and dull for some days in South Canterbury, but not wet enough to interfere much with the harvest. It is stated that where threshing has been done out of stook the returns are in many cases less than were anticipated. Our Ashburton correspondent writes :j A few light showers of rain fell at Ashburton yesterday, just enough to delay harvest work. 'The grass and turnips are making very rapid growth.