FARM & STATION.

Otago Witness, Issue 1688, 29 March 1884, Page 6

FARM & STATION.

NOTES ON THE SEASON. From the reports received from country districts we are inclined to think that as a whole farmers have no cause for grumbling as regards the yield of grain and the condition of the flocks and herds. The excessively .moist season we have experienced has apparently had a good effect on all kinds of grain and fodder crops, and grass appears to bo abundant everywhere. There has been too much cold and wet for early sown turnips, but later sowings for winter feed are looking better and promise a satisfactory amount of food. The lateness of the harvest, caused by undue amount of wet, is rather inconvenient, as in many cases farmers ought to be now preparing land for autumn wheat, and at the same time have to carry in the last crop. The wheat, though late, is pretty free from rust, which is an unusual thing after so much wet weather. Premising, then, that the crops are satisfactory as to quantity and quality, the question is, what sort of condition are they being harvested in, and what prices can be obtained for them? The weather keeps very unsettled, and those farme'B who have not carried their grain yet are likely to have some trouble with it ; the days are drawing in and the mornings are so dewy or foggy that it is only for a few hours in the middle of the day that the graiu is fit for stacking. Oats, especially feed sorts, are not much the worse for being a bit discoloured ; but wheat sprouts so rapidly that a few successive damp, muggy days, such as those experienced at the end of last and the beginning of the present week, is sufficient to spoil its marketable value, which is not at present very high for the primest samples. Great care should be taken while carting to see that the grain is quite fit to go into stack. Farmers in a catchy harvest are very apt to begin carting too soon after bad weather in their haste to secure it from further damage. But when once in the stack it cau--not be moved without a great deal of extra labour, and when the farmer finds his stacks heating and turning mouldy, if not in actual danger ot combustion, he thinks it would have been much wiser to have waited a little longer and put it together perfectly dry. The harvest being so late, there is great temptation to cut the grain on the green side, but if damp weather should prevail after cutting, the straw will not be fit for carting for several weeks, the sap in the straw requiring a certain amount of heat and dry air to " win " it — i.e., to mako it as hay is made before stacking. It. is a great mistake to make large sheaves in cutting and binding corn which is cut while green, for if a large bundle of greenish straw becomes damp it will turn a bad colour in the centre before the .weather, unless vory warm, can dry it properly. A good many farmers Bay that all cut grain should have at least one day's good north-west wind upon it before being stacked ; and this, no doubt, is a very good rule, but unfortunately we cannot have our winds and weather to order, and if grain stands in stook this season until the drying nor'-wester comes, it may not be carried for many weeks, these winds being very conspicuous by their absence during the last few weeks.

If the straw be thoroughly " won " before stacking, or if it be dead ripe when cut, it may be stacked while a little damp from rain without the grain being any the worse after remaining in stack for some months. We do not say it is desirable or advisable to cart in damp sheaves, but we have known such to be done, and when the stacks were threshed out in the following spring the oats were quite bright and bard. The heat of the stack, together with that which penetrates from tha surrounding air, seems to be sufficient to dry out the dampness before it has any injurious effect on the contents of the stack. Judging from the slovenly way in which one sometimes sees stacks put together, it does not signify in what state the grain may be when carried, for they are more at the mercy of the rain when in the stack than they were in the stook. A. bad stacker lays the sheaves with the heads alitfcle above the horizontal, and when the stack settles, the x> heads being the heaviest, sink down, and the sheaves are then lying with their heels higher than their heads, so that whatever rain falls on the stack must by the laws of nature find its way towards the centre of the stack, and should sufficient rain fall, it will go completely through from top to bottom. Such a stack- builder may say that his stacks are meant to be thatched, but even suppose they are, they cannot be considered secure, for a storm of wind may strip off large portions of the thatch, and rain follows ere the damaga can be repaired. It is just as easy to build a stack to keep out the rain as to build one to let it in. It only requires the exercise of a little common sense, and no farmer should |be deficient in that commodity, nor should he fail to exercise it in all operations.