AGRICULTURAL DISASTER

Mataura Ensign, Issue 1600, 6 February 1906, Page 5

AGRICULTURAL DISASTER

ViSITATJOX AT TAKANAKI. A part of Taraiutki was lately visiled by a very heavy hailsLonn. The Hawera 'Star' states thai In }lanaia gardens were absolutely ■wrecked, ami numerous windows smashed by ha.ilstones. One garden m Manaia, which had been a perfect picture, was ruined. Peas wore in full bearing, potatoes in fine condition, and cabbage in excellent heart, and all these were absolutely spoilt. It almost appean d as if the cabbages had be-n eaten down. About half of the heart and all the leaves wen? cut off. Potatoes were stripped of their lcav» s and blackened in a manner worse than the blight. The effect 011 the peas was most extraoidiuary. Not only were the vines cut and blackened, but the pods were split open by the hailstones and the peas knocked out. It appeared as if the' carrots had been lolled, the onions blown out, and all fruit strippco oft' tiie trees. This yard -n was suflidciu to have supplied a fa?uily with vei:"elal)les for a whole season, and after the vork of many months the cro: s are entirely destroyed. To see some of the potato and <jrain crops which WiTo destroyed by the hailstorm one could scarcely credit that bail could do so much damage. All that is left of the grain crops are dried stalks, the grain heads having been cut oil as with a scythe. As for the potatoes, there is just a trace of withered leaves lying cm rows of mounded earth.