NELSON

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4316, 27 March 1901, Page 2

NELSON

j , From Our, Own Correspondent. ! The oereaL harvest may now he said to bo over,, and considering the broken weather we had, it was fairly well garnered. Threshing operations are now the order of the day. • The hop crop—except in places lying low, exposed to the (fold spring rains—is considerably above the average, but in spite -of tne fact that a shortage is known to obtain in the European markets, prices here ■ will rule low. The reason is not far to seek. Many of the hops here are picked before they are ripe. In the majority of cases, our poles are very bushy and the sun cannot get at the hops so grown. Consequently they are wanting in condition. Twenty-sevea. cwt per acre is a common crop here, while in Kent seven cwt per acre is but seldom exceeded. The flavour ' of our hops is pronounce! by English experts to be equal to those grown in Kent, but ours are wanting in condition, hence our low prices. The remedy rest#, with ourselves, viz., by growing the hops on i string and planting them further apart so \ that the sun may mature and fill them. Our hops should he packed in bales of ■ similar weights to the English pockets, instead of the unsightly three and a'half cwt hales we now pack them in. Most of the sheep—indeed more- than . could, with prudence , be spared—have been swept out of this province and taken ■ through to Canterbury. ' The time hiust surely, and that 'shortly, come when a , great slump in the price of sheep will take place, but in the meahtinie onr ‘'cockatoos’ 1 can afford to wink the other eye.