RURAL TOPICS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXI, Issue 15451, 1 November 1910, Page 5

RURAL TOPICS.

AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL.

Very good entries have been received for the Banks Peninsula horse show, which will be held at Duvauchelle on Thursday.

A north-west gale of unusual severity raged in Canterbury yesterday. In the Ashburton district and nearer the city trees were stripped of foliage and quantities of fruit were blown off.

Shearing has,commenced in the Duusandel district and will be in full swing this week. If the weather continues dry most of tho wool from the district will bo in time for the first sales of the season.

Tho Killinchy correspondent of the “ Lyttelton Times” states that on light land crops are at a standstill. Heavy and swamp soil has not fared so badly, but is beginning to show the effects of the dry weather. Very little shearing has been done, but it will be general in a week or so. .

The dry weather is affecting the dairy industry on Banks Peninsula. A farmer near Akaroa states that the return from his supply of milk has averaged £o less per week than it did at this time last year, though he is milking the same number of cows and has the same extent of pasture for them.

An Ashburton farmer expresses the opinion that tho continuous late frosts and the cold easterly winds early in the season have done more harm to cereal crops and pastures than the dry weather has done. Had the season opened more favourably early-sown crops would have been more forward, and would have held moisture better.

The annual meeting of the Scargil! Saleyards Company, Limited, was held on Friday, Mr P. J. Overton (chairman of directors presiding. The balancesheet, which showed that the position of the company had greatly improved since the previous year, was adopted. Tho chairman stated that the profit and loss' account for the year showed a cred.it balance of over £SO. The retiring directors were Messrs \V. H. Turner and John Cameron. Mr Turner was reelected and Mr H. Acton Adams was elected in place of Mr Cameron, who

declined nomination. It was decided tot hold the first sale on January 10, 1911, and other sales at intervals of three weeks after that date.

The weather in South Canterbury continues to be of the very worst description. Hot drying winds have pre-x-ailed almost every day for some time, and though the sky has clouded over occasionally, giving promise of rain, there has boen none. The position is becoming very serious. Grain crops are drooping and losing colour, and grass, except on low-lying wet country, is going off fast. If ram does not soon fall the crops will be so stunted’ that they will be of little value.