WOODSIDE

Otago Witness, Issue 2818, 18 March 1908, Page 39

WOODSIDE

March 14. —The season still continues v«sjhot and dry. The month of February had nine wet days, contributing 1.99 in of rain. The greatest rainfall was on the 16th, when .605 in fell, followed by .475 in the next day. Many of the days have been very hot and trying, the thermometer being frequently oveT 90deg, and reaching as high as 98deg. Cattle are enjoying some better feed, ' end there are better prospects oi green feed to see the stock into the winter. The continued dry weathen has proved disastrous io the turnip crops. Early in the season the blight attacked the newly-thinned plants. It increased till it became a regular scourge. Many a day the air was so full of it that people moved! about with the greatest dicomfort. The ■•recent rains have come too late to save the turnips, and it is safe to say there will be none of this kind of feed on this side of the Taieii this winter, i The Harvest.—Harvesting operations ar« r.eaxing « close. The fine weather certainly favonred the gathering in of the grain, anil there being no broken time the fields were very quickly cleared. Perhaps no other year has seen so much grain threshed out of the stook, and stacks have this year been rathe* the -exception than the rule. Death of an Old Settler.—The old pioneers } are steadily dropping off one by one. There ; passed eway last week, at the age of I 82, in the person of Mr James Ctnhbertson, one of the very oldeßt of the resident* of this side of the plain. Early in the sixties the gold rush attracted him to Otsgo. but the cold of the goldfields proved tow much for him. and 43 wars ago be «ettle<l' down in Woodside. He saw the township carved out of the bueh, and many a good story he told of life in the early days. He was a hard-working, energetic man, but was laid aside through illness • some three or four years ago. His dstnisa came somewhat suddenly, and the sympathy of the district goes out to his widow, left in her old age to mourn her loss.