SOUTHLAND AGRICULTURE NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3330, 9 January 1918, Page 10

SOUTHLAND AGRICULTURE NOTES.

(From Odb Own Cohbespondent.)

The fact? of no stock sales being held at Wallacetown from immediately before Christmas until January 15 may seem a long period; but the experier.ee of previous, seas<*is fhows that it does not cause any serious inconvenience to anyone. Generally, in anticipation of such, and-possibly higher prices, there is a large supply forward for the Christmas, and when" people make up their minds to prepare for such contingencies thero is never ~ any serious hardship caused. The abundance of feed makes it easy to hold stock, and the butchers, even if they cannot carry an extra supply, can obtain by private purchase what ihey require. I have still to report a very orotracted shearing season; but there is no complaint in respect to the quality of the wool. Nearly all sheep-ownere prefer to be late rather than have their ewes shorn, and a spell of bad or even cold, showery weather overtakes them. The quantity of wool the ewes carry does not inconvenience them so much as it does heavy, well-conditioned, wethers. Only those who have suffered can fully realise how even one cold night after shearing can put the ewes off their milk, and how the lambs suffer, and frequently a serious loss is entailed. No young stock of any kind can stand a check, ami lam bs tip till now and after, if they suffer a pinch in any form, do not easily recover from it, and the loss and trouble caused in various ways are indescribable. While the rough spell we have been and still are suffering from, to the detriment of holiday-makers, is to be regretted, it is also having a very bad effect on various-kinds of crcps. Although the ryegrass crops are not yet cut and in stook, where they are heavy and promising they get so laid and twisted about with the wind and lodged by a heavy rainfall that it makes them appear as if they could scarcely be cut at all by a binder. When they are well advanced and the heads heavy with the well-filled ripening seed, such crops do not rise again, as tliey may do earlier in the season. The waste under any_ circumstances, which cannot be well avoided when cutting and handling, is on account of such weather as we have had very much aggravated by the crop being so much more difficult to handle right through until secured from the mill in the loaf.

Tho grain crops arc not far .enough advanoed to suffer in the same way, They are rapidly coming into oar, and are in most cases promising fairly well, but on light and dry shingly soil have been rushing into ear too rapidly, and, although it is quite impossible to predict the probable yield, they may in such cases yield more to the bulk than per acre. Some of tho turnip crops, particularly in some localities, have not been doing so well. When the weather is not quite favourable the fly becomes troublesome, and some seem to havo been feeling uneasy about their future prospects. Not getting a good start or unfavourable weather at an early period may tell to a considerable extent; but tho growth and root development depends so much on tho autumn and early winter that any fears onterTained at this period may be entirely dispelled if there has been a. good braird, and a good show of tops covering tho ground fairly well. Thero may even bo some crops possibly of soft turnips not sown yet; but it is now too late to do so to expect a profitable crop.So far as any definite and safe pronouncement can be made potatoes seem to be doing fairly well, and it is said that

the area under this crop has been much more extensive than in some years previously. The blight does not seem to be showing up as a menace to the prospect of a fairly good.yield. There may be slight indications on a very limited scale in some early crops; but it may only bo an odd

plant or two giving way through, some other cause, as the crops in general are so far looking well and healthy. While in Southland pigs arc to bo found on most farms, breeding and fattening do not seem to be taken up as part of a system. Most farmers have a few pigs, and, while they have sufficient for homo consumption, do not go in for fattening on a large scale, but dispose of what they do not require chiefly as surplus. Young pigs and all kinds of stores have been in brisk demand at high prices. In some few localities the supply is slightly falling off, but somo of the factories that dreaded a shortage on account of suppliers stopping are doing better than they expected, the season being so favourable.