GLEANINGS

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 7025, 13 January 1910, Page 3

GLEANINGS

Dairying is at last extending in Canterbury. On top of the proposal to establish a factory in the Ashburton district there is now a movement on foot to establish one at St. Andrews. One of the finest crops of oats about Carterton this season, says the "News,’ is that grown by Mr Zabell, at Belvedere. The straw is over six feet high, and tho yield is .expected to average GO or 70 bushels.

For tho first time tho November milk? supply was heavier than that of December at some Taranaki dairy' factories. The season was earlier this year than usual and tho weather was very dry in December.

Owing to the prevalence of rust and caterpillars in some districts in the TVairarapa the grain yield will be seriously diminished. In several cases the visitations have bean so severe that tho crops are not worth cutting and stock have been turned in to them. There is nothing doing in the Southland stock market, and in consequence of feed being plentiful very few sheep arc offering. The outlook for lambs docs not look at all bright, and the general opinion seems to be that prices will open at from 10s 6d l to 11s 6d. Butchers’ sheep (wethers) are selling at from 13s to 13s 6d, hut thefe is only) a very limited demand.

Tho members of tho South Canterbury Threshing ALII Owners’ Union mot on Saturday and decided that prices for the* season should bo as follow :—For threshing out of stock, 3fd per bushel for wheat and barley and 2}d for oats; for. threshing out of stack, 3d per bushel for wheat and barley and 2Jd per bushel for oats, with the exception of solid straw wheat, for which tho price for stack threshing should'bo 3Jd pew bushel. After being free from the ravages of tho Hessian , fly for . a number of years, some farmers on the southern end of the Tokomairiro Plain have found signs of it among their wheat (say tho “Otago Daily Times’')- For many years after the first outbreak of this pest Tuscan wheat was grown, hut, thinking tho district . thoroughly, immune, other varieties of wheat have been grown. If the fly spreads to ftome of the fine fields the results will bo disastrous. -

A good deal of cocksfoot cutting has been done in the neighbourhood of Akaroa, and there is a general start with the crops on all parte of the Peninsula. The - weather conditions haro boon unusually propitious this year, and it is anticipated in consequence that the yield will bo an unusually heavy one. As .. to labour, there are a large number of grass seeders in all parts of tho Peninsula. On tho other hand, the growers in Little River district are said to be disappointed at tho prospects of the yield, which do not appear to bo up to tho expectations of a week or so ago. Tho season will bo an early one, even tho late crops being in. a very forward condition

Owing to tho dry Weather, some days being scorching hot. tho harvest will bo early this season, writes “10 "Winchester correspondent of tho “Lyttelton Times." Already a good many crops of oats have been cut, and some have been stacked. . Mill-owners are beginning threshing from the stook. The yield of cats will not bo as high as that of last. year. Small birds arc responsible for much .damage to all tho

early crops.- The yield of wheat will in most cases bo satisfactory to tho growers. All early sown crops were favoured by the right sort of spring

v, oatlior, and although they aro ripening a little too quickly now, they are on tho average nearly up to the high quality of last year. The later sown wheat" will not be up to tho standard, and crop:-; on light lands have been seriously harmed by the dry weather; in fact, there arc a few crops that will barely pay expenses.