RURAL TOPICS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXII, Issue 15810, 28 December 1911, Page 8

RURAL TOPICS.

AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL. Rain commenced to fall at Kirwee early on Christmas ‘morning and continued heavily all day, 1.67 in being registered. The weather is still showery and very disagreeable for holiday making. The rainfall for December now totals 6.10 in. The recent hailstorms will necessitate the re-sowing of most of the turnip crops, as the first sowing has been etithcr battered to pieces or washed out of the ground.

The recent wet weather in the Oxford district, while bringing on grass and crops and assisting turnips and rape, lias hampered hay and shearing operations. It has been found difficult to s3t in the hay, and shearing has been a long and tedious job. The cold 6nap of a few days ago caused a great fatality among newly-shorn sheep, many "farmers having had to endure losses more or less severe.

Springston district is receiving more than its usual rainfall this summer, and if the present weather conditions continue the crops are likely to suffer, as a second growth has begun. Tho fruit crops, excepting apples, are all backward, and hay-harvesting operations have had to be abandoned for the present. Christmas Day was very quiet, as a cold rain set in during the early morning and continued incessantly until late at night. All picnics had to lie abandoned, and Christmas dinners were enjoyed at home beside blazing Yule logs. Sheep had a very rough experience, but up to the present no losses have been reported.