CANTERBURY AGRICULTURE. (From Our Own Correspondent.)

Otago Witness, Issue 2363, 8 June 1899, Page 29

CANTERBURY AGRICULTURE. (From Our Own Correspondent.)

CHRISTCHURCH, June 6.

The weather has at last changed for the better, there having been no rain for three days, but sharp frosts having set in the position of those who have potatoes to lift — and a very large part of the crop is still in the ground— is very little improved; in fact, on heavy land the potatoes are not worth digging, and though the price is low the loss is serious. A good deal of ploughing has been done in spite of the weather, but very little wheat has been sown, and the season is now so far advanced that farmers seem disposed to wait awhile and see what may turn up before sowing anything. Threshing" is far in arrear, and tho spring will be well on before it is finished, even if we have favourable weather. Farmers at last seem frightened at the high price of sheep and a dulness in the demand for stores has been perceptible the last few days. Fat sheop and lambs, however, are keenly competed for. Lasl week the culls of a lot of la.mbs from which exhibits for the Dunedin Winter- show were selected fetched 25s a head, a new record for freezing lambs. They were from the New Zealand and Australian Land Company's Acton Estate (Mr W. Blackley, manager), and were by Shropshire and Border Leicester rams from crossbred ewes, and lambed in September or October.