COUNTRY NEWS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17078, 29 January 1916, Page 10

COUNTRY NEWS.

[Feom Our Correspondents.j KIRWEE. Very hot, dry weather was experienced at Kirwee during the early part of the week. On Wednesday there was a very strong north-west wind, which made harvesting operations very difficult. In some cases reaping had to be suspended for a few hours, as owing to the shortness of the straw and the lightness of the heads, the wind took the cut grain right off tho platform of" the reaper. Stacking and stock threshing were also interfered with. About 7.30 p.m. a strong south-west wind came up and rain commenced to fall. Light rain continued during the night and there were several heavy showers on Thursday, the total rainfall being .56in. The weather continued dull on Friday, so tho moisture will have a chance to sink into the land which has been worked and will do a lot of good to turnip and- rape crops and .to oats which have just been drilled. A fair amount of laud has been prepared for sowing oats for green feed, and no doubt it will all be needed, as paddocks are very bare of grass. More rain is needed to make much growth in most grass paddocks. , There are some fine strikes of turnips where the land had been fallowed and well worked. The recent showers are causing the young plants to grow rapidly, and in numbers of paddocks the tops are covering the ground. The early sown rape crops did not stand a great deal of feeding off, but they should come on again now. The later crops are looking very well, and they are a- fine healthy colour.

The wheat crops which have been threshed have yieldjod rather disappointingly, the. best reported to date yielding 19 bushels an acre, and others 13 bushels and lOi bushels an acre. A paddock of Dun oats on Mr J. Tuft's farm yielded 30 bushels an- acre. At ffalkett-a paddock of wheat yielded 0 bushels an acre, and there are others which will not give more than 5 bushels. Some farmers estimate their wheat ns low as 3 bushels. The Malvern County Council's waterraces have been very short of water owing to the small flow in the Kowa.i, and the work of alternating the flow in the two main races has been started much earlier than is usually the case. The showers which have fallen recently. only augment the supply for a, few days. Tampering with water-races is very rife, and it is a pity some of the offenders cannot be caught. Hedgehogs have been causing a lot of trouble in the local poultry yards lately, chickens disappearing in large numbers during the. night time. It was quite a mystery as to what was causing the loss until a hedgehog was caught in the act recently and was promptly desnatehed. Since then no fewer than five others have been killed.

I-TAWABDEN. The right of the publican's booth at the Hawardcn Agricultural and Pastoral Association's patriotic show on March 31 was sold by auction on Thursday for £ls, the, purchaser being Mr J. G. Whitmore, Waikari. Mr A. Kelper made a present of six eol'lie nups to the patriotic show fund, and they were disposed of by auction at the weekly sale on Thursday, realising six guineas. ASHBUR'TON. The rain which set in on Thursday afternoon at Ashburton continued until late in the evening, 40 points being registered at the Domain weather station. Although yesterday morning broke fine, a heavy shower of rain fell shortly after ten o'clock, but it cleared later and a fine afternoon resulted. A total of 631 points lias been recorded for the recent rains.