LAKE WANAKA.

Otago Witness, Issue 2295, 24 February 1898, Page 25

LAKE WANAKA.

i Albertown, February 21.— We have experi- | encecj exactly the Sime weather as has been so 1 giaphicdlly described by your various corresponj dents. We had a downfall of smoky rain. This i", I think, easily explained. Th<; snicks from the various bush and feru fires, perhaps as far away as the North Island, gathered thickly around ; the rain came when the smoke was thickest, and washed the soot out and cleared the air. Frequently during this summer and last the mountains round Lakes. Watiaka aud Hawea i were obscuied in smoke, and sometimes [ the suu would struggle through, giving the | country a wild, unearthly glire. Oo the Ist inst. (Tuesday) the wind blew almost a gale, which shook all the erop3 that were standing, whether they were ripe or not. I uf>e a swing bar Reid and Gray binder to cut my crop, and its solidity and weight btood io in good stead that day. The year before last I worked it^all day in a similar gale. At Tarras the high winds somewhat retarded harvesting operations. The ciops at Mount Barker are now all cut aad tiiere are only a few odd patches left *t liiwea At Cirj drona, though only 14 miles from Mount Barker, I the cropß do not ripen for fully a month later, i The threshing machine has already started operations, having threshed Mr Smith's wheat at Stone Yards, and will continue at Mount Barker at once. The yield per acre of oats does not apj pear to be quite equai to former years, and there j is less acreage put in this year, so that the prices will be firm till next harvest at least. La&t year some of the farmers did not ttudy the outide market, and asked more for their oats than they could be delivered from youthldiid for. The acreage in wheat is much greater than in former yeais and the returns high, so that it is generally stated there are two years' bupply on hand now, taking l'.cal requirements as a guide, and this large quantity, or the greater part of it, will therefore require to lie idle along time, unless the prices outside the district rise high enough to piy the farmeis to send it away. The want of a ) aiKs ay will be keenly felt. We had a severe f robt the other night, which cut down all the tender plants and gave an inch of ice on the buckets of water at the Forks and Cattle Flat.