THE WEATHER AND THE CROPS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCVIII, Issue 11446, 8 December 1897, Page 6

THE WEATHER AND THE CROPS.

Our Leeston correspondent writes:— The harvest season’ is fast approaching, with but a very poor prospect of any harvest. The drought, coming on top of the driest winter on record, has perished up the-crops in an. unprecedented manner, and in a great many cases around the district the farmers have given up hope of taking any crop off, and have put the stock ou. In one or two cases the crop has already been eaten off, and the ground ploughed up again. On Monday evening last a white frost was experienced throughout the district, and a very large area of potatoes has been cut down through it. Altogether, it is one of the most disastrous seasons in the annals of Ellesmere.

A sharp frost was felt at Ashburton on Tuesday night, but it was not severe enough to cut down beaus and potatoes. It was followed by a very hot day yesterday. "Our Okam’s Bay correspondent writes ; The general aspect of the district has changed from bad, last month, to a good deal worse this, and there is now every prospect of a bad season. The cocksfoot has been in bloom for more than a week, and unless a plentiful rain falls almost immediately to put it back, and keep it growing, it will be prematurely ripe about New Year —fully two or three weeks before it usually is. That on knolls, and in the vicinity of rocks, was completely scorched up a fortnight ago. It is very short, too, and in some exceptional cases it is hardly three inches above last year’s stubble. Splendid weather was experienced for the haymaking season, which is now about half done ; though it was a trifle windy on Saturday, and on Monday a few light showers fell in the morning, and a cold south-west wind blew all day. The rain stopped the haymaking for the day, but was not enough to do any good otherwise, except that it settled the clouds of dust that had been flying about all the previousweek. As to the gardens, fruit trees are now the only things that look well, and an exceptional crop of apples may be expected. Plums, however, will not bo in such quantities as they wero last year, hut there is promise of an average yield. The factory milk supply is rapidly diminishing, but the fall, though considerable, iu the quantity of cheese is not so marked, showing that the milk is of a better quality now than it was about a month ago, when the supply was at its highest. Water is rather scarce at anv distance from creeks and springs. Of "the latter, some that were never-failing before, have gone dry.