SOUTH ISLAND HARVEST PROSPECTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13399, 30 January 1907, Page 7

SOUTH ISLAND HARVEST PROSPECTS.

REPORTS FROM THE DISTRICTS.

[BY TELEGRAPH. — OWN COi'.KESPOXDENT.]

CuttixTCHURi.T, Tuesday. Fubji'Hkb returns have come to hand during the past week in answer to the circular sent (jut by the representative farmers throughout the country.

A Willoby report states that the crops generally arc below the average. Wheat is estimated at 40 bushels, and oats at about 25. Hay is set clown at two tons, and potatoes about live. The turnips, which are stated to be poor, are noted as having been attacked by the fly.

A Waterton farmer anticipates 20 bushels of wheat to the acre, and a similar average of oats. Potatoes are given as likely to return four tons.

A statement from the As'iburton Forks district sets the anticipated yield of wheat and oats down at 40 bushels each, and peas at 50 bushels.

In the .Mount Sowers district wheat and beans are set dowr. as " nc.io ," oats are "horse feed only," a small quail' '.y : threshed hay, " hardly any;'' potato..- are good, and appear to be free from blight ; white the turnip crops arc stated to be looking well.

According to a well-known authority in the North Otago district little would have been heard about "turning the sheep into the crop" had farmers not been overstocked. It was not that the crop was useless, but that feed had to be provided for the lambs that they might be got away to tho freezers, leaving the turnips for big wethers. Of course, tie year is bad, but there are some very iina average crops in the district, paddocks of wheat which will thresh out 30 to 36 bushels to the acre. As for the winter feed, the outlook is too painful for words, and lie was quite at a loss to imagine how the stuck would fare during the cold seaslTn. Not only does the lack of feed continue to make the condition of stock serious, but tho lack of water is a circumstance that can only add additional misery. There is a. crumb of comfort in the fact that in the North Island the weather has been more propitious, and feed is now plentiful. It is not unlikely that many farmers will send their slock to the North Island for their wintering. The only alternative would seem to be boiling down works.