WELLINGTON AGRICULTURAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2722, 16 May 1906, Page 8

WELLINGTON AGRICULTURAL NOTES.

/ Fxok Oca. Ows Cokeispondent.) The question of weather is becoming altogether too monotonous. The Another week's heavy rain. Weather. and to-day still raining, and

glass very low, registering 29.3, which is as low as I have seen it on the Manawatu. The return of the nun fall at Hunterville for April was 4.74 in, rain having ' fallen on 20 days. Last year for the same month 3.76 in fell, which does not seem such a big increase, un/til we take the four months of the year, when we find there has fatteo 19.825 in against 13.279i»x last year. Seeing that we have had 7£in more than last year, which was by no means extra dry, outsiders can understand everyone is wishing for a change; even a good hard frost for a few days would be acceptable, as we might then get a "blink o' the sun." Although it might retard vegetation, still it would dry' the country" up and make both humans and animals more healthy. There is a good deal of eickness all through the districts, the doctors ' having a busy time; and stock also want heartening up badly. Under such weather conditions it goes without saying there is little or no work getting much forrarder on the farm.

At a meeting of the Feilding Rabbit Committee (which takes in the Babbits. three counties Kiwitea ; Pohangina, and Oroua) tie Chairman said it was the general^ opinion that rabbite were on the increase, and combination was required to deal with them ; but, unfortunately, all farmers were not taking an active part in killing- rabbits, and he thought that, although it was, not a pleasant task, the inspectors xwld have to be informed. Mr Blundell, of the Stock Department, was asked the test method of dealing with the pest. He said that farmers should report all who were not trying to keep the pest in check; but since the raibbit law had been altered it was hard to convict a farmer. There is not much chance of farmers becoming informers, so that Mr Blundell's suggestion will liave little effect in making the dilatory move themselves. But it is now reported that an assistant is to be sent to h<?lp Stockinspector Miller, more especially in regard to the rabbit pest. This is a f-Aep in The right direction, and ii taken years ago, when rabbits were 'onfimed to a area on the lower Rangitikei. would have saved the enormous expense that it will take to combat the scourge. A few years ago if energetic measures had been taken either by wire-netting (50 miles would have done it), or destroying ihem in some other way, probably £1000 would nave don*© it : .now it is impossible to estimate what it will cost, the districts named to exterminate them, if ever they succeed in so doing. But it is always the case when any scourge that, affects the farming interest aHacks a country: it is allowed to work its own sweet will until its ravages are such that farmers see that if they do not kill the scourge it will ruin them. There is a case in pojmt at present on the coast in that fell disease' blackleg. Never a farmer do we hear raising his voice at a market or union meeting so as to stimulate (he Government to take action to make sure of confining the pest to Taranaki if <hey cannot stamp it out altogether. In a^vthing pertaining to the farming interest the Government need a good deal of stirring up before they will take action, so that very often the force is lost by having bpen too slow in attacking the object. "He that strikes quickly strikes twice." So it is to be hoped the Government will do something at once.

Writing of Taranaki reminds me that a few years ago, before the Oil. boom in butter, if youask^d

anyone to smrulare in property un that way he would think thai you took him for a fool. Now what a ohamge: dairy land selling at £30 an acrp, a.nd money being returned for their cut nut of butter by the thousands; and to-day they have succeeded in fjettinjr a sunply of oil that may revolutionise the district. Ir is a true saymer that "You don't know where you are" in a new country, the changes being so sudden.

An esteemed correspondent, writing to me

on the 2nd of May from j Autumn Sowing Hawke's Be.v. says:— "l,' •f Oats. read in the telegrams from ; the south this week: 'There j is crop to cut. yet, and oats- in South- j land will be a long- way behind the average.'. Now, why cannot those practical farmers do as we do here — get their oats | sown early enough to ripen in the summer? We are going to sow oats to-day; will have all our grain in the ground for next season's crop *his month. Consequently it is ready to out the last week in Decern- | her, and all in the stack by the end of j January.' 1 My friond tells me he has | been 25 years in Ha-*ke's Bay. so that, j lik<i myself, he knows little of thp eKmatio conditions of Southland : but climate has ! not a great deal to do with whether autumn sowing of grain is advantageous or not. I consider the nature of the soil is the chief factor, and experiment and experience over a cycle of years is the best and surest guide in the matter ; so that I suppose the Southland farmer has satisfied himself that spring sowing '.s the most profitable one for him to follow. Southern farmers being considered by their northern brothers to be a long way ahead of them, it is with diffidence that I approach the subject, only that here on the West Coast there is a great diversity of opinion on the same question. On taking a retrospect of my experience, I will confine myself to Australasia. In all the Australian States autumn sowing is almost universally carried on. In the inland dry districts it is compulsory, as th« growing season is what ajo termed the winter nlontlis: but on the i southern coastal district, where the rain- ' fall is as heavy and the temperature as low as I have ever felt it in the provinco of Wellington, crops are generally sown early in the autumn, and I have seen crops standing for weeks in a veritablo sea of mud, which you could not walk over without eoing over tho booi-tam. and still '

turn out a good yield of grain. On welldrained land, either naturally or artificially, there are few places in New Zealand where autumn sowing cannot be practised profitably. Before the advent of the reaper-and-binder machines, good work used to bg done by clearing out all the furrows after the harrowing in of the seed, so aa to tako the 6urface water off quickly, but few do so nowadays, as crossing deep furrows with a machine coon knocks it to pieces. Where there is a free, open subI soil, which is generally the case on alluvial i flats, eh ingle or gravel predominating, if ' not liable to be flooded for weeks at a ' time, autumn-sown seeds will do well if the lend is clean and free of weeds seeds. There is generally an "if" to every subject, which is a useful l : ttle word, and keeps us from being too dogmatic, and leaves a loophole of escape in case the opinions we express do not turn out right when put into practice; so that if the land is dirty it ie hopeless to expect a crop from winter grain, as the weeds will grow while the grain is sleeping. On the stiff clay lands surrounding Sandon, Halcombe, and Marton, since the Algerian oat came into fashion, there has been a good deal more autumn sowing done than formerly, with good results, which one wouid hardly expect considering the cold olay 6ubsoil ar.d the bleak aspect of the country in the winter. The great desideratum in autumn sowing is to sow early and on a weal-tilled! seed-bed, so that the grain ear have a good start before the heavy and cold rains of winter set in. There will be little or any tillage; so that after all the seasons the weather having been prohibitive to any tillage ;so that a f £<?r all the season are the main factors towards success in all farm work, as one season may turn cut favourable for one system of work, while th? next is quite the reverse. Therefore kt each farmer experiment in his own particular district, when he will soon be able to judge better than anyone else what system suits his country best. J ANTIQUA OVIS.