HAWSE'S BAY FARM AND RURAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2695, 8 November 1905, Page 21

HAWSE'S BAY FARM AND RURAL NOTES.

(Feom Ovb, Own Correspondent.') Owing to the amount, of wet we have had the work of preparing the The ground for the -various crops Crops. is very backward, and a large amount of the oats are only just in, while a few are not in yet. It is rather late, and if it comes dry weather the crops will be light, but there is no appearance of settled weather yet. Farmers are pushing on to get the rape sown and the turnip land ready. Every contractor, whether he is any good- or not, is besieged with farmers wanting work of some kind done. A considerable area that would have gone into oats in an ordinary season is being sown with rape, and much that wasJintended to be ploughed up rhis year wiflßtave to wait till next. In consequence of the rush of work draught horses are bringing big prices.^ At Dannevirke last week heavy draughts brought from. £50 to £60, medium draughts, £30 to £50, and light draughts and spring carters from £20 to £4-0. The potato crop seems to be in al bad way. In many cases the first sowing rotted in the ground from the wet. and now the blight is the cause of much anxiety. If it is true, as some say. that spraying is not an effective remedy, there- shoiild be good times in store for those who are fortunate enough to escape, and men who do not think of growing potatoes as a rule are putting in a few on the chance of a dividend. Still, it is as well to bear in mind that with the blight in the country no export will be allowed, so that enough will be wanted for consumption in New Zealand only. The statistics of exports of potatoes for the last six years show a variation from 24,850 tons in 1900 to 3157 tons in 1904, and the price varies from £6 4s in 1899 to £1 10s in 1900, a drop of £4 14s from one year to the next, which goes to show that lo grow potatoes for one year only is rather a gamble. If the same amount is grown every year, and the good years taken with the bad, the crop pays jvell enough, provided the man who grows them has suitable land not far from the railway. Long-distance carting takes away all the profit, unless the market is exceptionally good.

Docking is now quite finished, and, as in other parts of New Zealand. The the percentages have been Season. high, excepting 'those that lambed early and met the rough, oold weather. The death rata among the ewes was small, and 1 owing to there having been so few frosts inversion of the uterus has not been troublesome. Hoggets have done exceptionally well, and in most ca-ses the death rate has been unusually light — le3s than 1 per cent, being common. The grass is coming on fairly well, and everybody that^is not overstocked has plenty now. Thos& who are complaining of the shortness are those who are stocked in excess of the carrying capacity of their land, so that they have only themselves to

blame. If the sun got a chance to show through there would be more than enougb feed. In the meantime it is very soft, and a sheep or a beast has to eat a lot of if before it is satisfied.

The woo] is coming off very slowly, as scarcely a day goes by The without rain. Two or three Shearing. night pens a week is about; all that can be cut out, and ifc seems as if the work of getting the wool off will before long be as much behind as the tilling operations, and shearers will be at a premium, as nearly everyone is anxious to get their wool into 'the December sales.

A sale in which considerable interest was taken was held at Waipawa Laud on October 27, when 930 Sale. acres of Messrs Skerman and Podevin's Waimarino Estate was offered for sale in four sections. This estate is part of the old Fairfield Estate, which was cut -up and sold by Mr Bridge a few years ago. The prices were considered to be good, and were much in excess of those obtained by Mr Bridge, and ranged from £12 10s to £17 2s, the latter price for a section of" 165 acres, 100 acres' of which are in oats. It is mostly alluvial land and drained swamp, and grows excellent crops of rape and grain, and ia situated some four miles from Waipawa Railway Station. HEPERE.