RURAL TALKS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXIV, Issue 16192, 19 March 1913, Page 4

RURAL TALKS.

(By RUSTICUS.)

I The rain that fell at the end of Fob- ! ruary, though it caused somo grain that was in stook to sprout, really did a great deal more good than harm. Of course, harvesting was practically finished in the northern part of Canterbury, but further south a good deal remained to be done, and some of it had not he2n restooked after the heavy gale on Feb. 13. This stuff was what suffered most. Anything that was stooked up properly escaped very well. Stacking was resumed on the first of March, and stook threshing a few days later, a few hours of drying wind having worked wonders with the wet stooks. The grain is somewhat discoloured, and will not look as well a. 3 that which was threshed or stacked previous to the rain. If the wet weather had kept off for a week longer large numbers of farmers in South Canterbury and North Otago would have finished. On the other hand, if it had come a week earlier the damage would have been very much more widespread than it is. But what I started out to say was that on the whole the rain has done much more good than harm. Turnips have put on wonderful growth since the rain fell. Paddocks that seemed to have nothing on them have suddenly become covered with green, healthylooking tops. The bulbs will form later, of course, and they have fully three months yet in which to grow. They will be of excellent quality, as late turnips always are, fresh, juicy and tasty all through the winter and into the spring, instead of being pithy or stringy as earlier turnips so often are. The way in which turnips are growing is particularly gratifying, because tliere is absolutely nothing that can take their place. A good crop of turnips means that all the lambs can be got away, and that the ewes will be kept in good heart all the winter and will come to their lambing in the spring in proper condition. Rape is also growing again, and, of course, grass is making rapid strides. Autumn and winter feed is suro to be fairly plentiful, and store sheep should-harden in price. Those who have to take delivery of lambs now, having purchased for forward dolivery, will" be much easier in their minds now that sufficient moisture has fallen to ensure a good supply of feed. Team work is being pushed en where harvesting is finished. Ploughing and cultivating aro being carried on under the best of circumstances, the ground just being right for working. The rains evidently tested stacks of grain very thoroughly. A good many stacks have been found wanting, I am afraid, judging by the way in which the weather side of the heads of some of them "has to he stooked out when the mill makes a start. Stackers must keep the head fairly steep, and a good pitch on the sheaves, or trouble will result. It is not fl difficult thing. to do, and vet it is surprising how many farmers fail in this respect. And there should be some bedding put under the stacks, particularly now that the ground is not too dry. Another matter that must be very carefully attended to is the covering of the bags in stook 'threshing. I have seen bags of grain left uncovered in the rain get so had that the bottom bags of the pile actually grew to the ground. The rain had run down the bags to the bedding underneath, with the result that the bottom bags grew so badly that they could scarcely be lifted. There should be plenty of red clover seed about tbis season. An unusually large amount of hay was made in the summer, and a great number of hay paddocks were afterwards shut up for clover seed. The heads are filling well with seed. The clover crops should bo better to cut than was the case last season, because they are not so heavy and not so twisted about as they were last autumn. Anticipating a short pge on the other side of the world,, and an insufficient supply of seed to fill local requirements,, merchants have ordered large quantities of clover seed from firms in London. In view of this a big price cannot rule this season, although a payable one may bo forthcoming. ■White clover has done very well this season, and much larger quantities than usual will be saved, particularly on stubble land. The price is good, and the stuff is threshing well. The first crop has done very well. The dry weather, has had the effect of preventing white clover aftermath from

making good headway, so as tq be reapable. White clover, once it gets thoroughly established, does not -need to bo sown. The seeds live in the ground for a long time, and then germinate freely as soon as the plough turns them 'up to the surface of the ground. White clover makes a good late summer feed for lambs, but it unfortunately soon goes off. One may see tussockv .facings 'full of white clover, although white clover was never sown there. Birds and stock must have acted as distributing agents and carried the seed -there.

The attempt to eliminate the contract or piecework .system of payment from the threshing award in favour of payment to the men by the hour only is being made in Canterbury this season with a good deal of energy. In South Canterbury that recommendation was made to the Arbitration Court, sitting at Timaru. The millowners made no objection, and the Judge stated that the recommendation would automaticalJv become an award in thirty days' time if no objections were lodged. Farmers then took tho matter up. They believed that this meant a big lever in the hands of the millowners to enforce payment for threshing, by the hour, a system*that had already been put into" practice by the South Canterbui-y Millowners' Union, but against which the majority of the farmers were in violent opposition. While stook threshing was on, farmers had to engage mills by the hour, but as soon as they got their stuff stacked they were able to take a strong stand, and* this they did. The millowners have since reconsidered their position, but these notes will be out of my hand before their new decision is announced. Payment by the hour, to the men by the'millowner or by the farmer to the millowner, for the use of his mill. is not as satisfactory to all parties as the contract system. Farmers are finding their threshing run up to fivepence and sixpence a bushel. They are prepared to pay something extra this season in view of the circumstances, chiefly poorer threshing and increasing wages, but they naturally thought that wheat should not go above fourpenc© a bushel for threshing and oats, say, threepence. Men on a good mill in anything like decent threshing are making more by the thousand in South Canterbury than they would be at a shilling an hour and found,.shifts on the same farm included. Farmers have no control over the equipment, manning and management of the mills, and they naturally object to pay for their threshing by the hour under those circumstances, and good men on good mills would rather work by piecework, at' a higher figure, of course, than last year, than by tho hour. Some mills threshing by contract keep a time-book and guarantee the men a minimum wage of a shilling an hour and found. If the piecework pays them better than that, they are paid by piecework.

I cannot reiterate too strongly my advice to farmers to place their stacks in better positions than formerly, and to place them more in groups. A mill should not have to 6et for less than, say, 400 bushels. Scattered stacks.in difficult positions aro not fair to millowners and men. Tho millowners have to provide an expensive plant that costs a good deal to run, and the men require to be well paid for their job, which, after all, is not the pleaaantest under the sun. Those farmers who will persist in placing their stacks so that shifting is a long, tedious job, hard, on machinery and coal, should be made to pay for it. The Government's figures regarding

the averages for the dominion of the field crops are, in the matter of cereals at any rate, a good deal above the nctual results, unfortunately for us. ; The average wheat yield is estimated at thirty bushels an acre. One cannot express surprise that such an estimata was arrived at when the returns were collected, seeing that the wheat was then only in the growing and ripening stages. The crops have certainly been deceptive, the early-sown ones mora than the later sowings. At least 20 per cent must be deducted from that estimate; in fact, in many cases that! will not cover the deficiency. It is certain that we have not grown enough wheat for our own use by, at a rough estimate, a couple of million bushels, taking foodstuffs, seed' and chickfeed into consideration. Tliere is a considerable carry-over from last even then there will be a shortage* panterbnry rules the roost in wheat production. A glance at the figures showa this. The average for Canterbury is set down at 29.40 bushels, yet the average for the whole dominion is only 30.04, and this in spite of the fact that the averages of other provinces go up to as high as 38.87 bushels. Canterbury so much overshadows the remainder of the dominon in the growing of wheat that the Canterbury average practically constitutes the average; for the whole of New Zealand. Oats, too. are, I am afraid, much below the statistician's figures, namely, 38.35 bushels per acre. Southland dominates the oat production, probably, and its average is put down at 41 ..75 bushels per acre. Judging by reports, this is too high, and it is just a chance if the dominion average ii over thirty bushels an acre. This will leave sns short if; we use up to our usual quantity, but' no doubt substitutes, such as good clover hay, will he found. The average for potatoes is on the safe side, F should say. They are keeping fairly! clear of blight this season, though a food deal of second growth has set in.' s for turnips, very few of to know, how many tons an acre we are likely to grow. For one thing, a great pro* portion of turnips in Clnterbury are only just starting to form bulbs, and, : for another thing, very few of us havo much idea what a crop of turnips would weigh per acre, as wo seldom dea! with turnips by the ton.