OUR CANTERBURY AGRICULTURAL BUDGET.

Otago Witness, Issue 3334, 6 February 1918, Page 10

OUR CANTERBURY AGRICULTURAL BUDGET.

(From Oub Own Correspondent.) A CATCHY HARVEST. The harvest weather we are experiencing can best bo described as catchy._ It is not altogether unfavourable, but it is hindering, and its vagaries are not a little harassing and annoying at times. At times the sun shines out for a day with tropical heat. Perhaps a breeze from the nor'-west will blow along to add to the heat. But as sure as -a northerly turn takes place the weather conditions become upset in some way, and rain follows, with one or two dull and cool days. On several occasions the wind from the sea in the .afternoon has been very keen for the time of the year. There have been several showers since I last wrote. To give an indication of their character, I may say that the last one gave us 30 points of rain and the previous one 45 points. THE HARVEST. These showers are not sufficient to do any damage to the crops standing and in the stook. They certainly make farmers careful to keep the stocks up, as any sheaves lying on the ground would get wet enough to grow; but properly-constructed stooks are dry a few hours after the sun comes out. The rains are just the thing for the turnips, but they are keeping back the work of harvesting, and they make farmers feel that some day there might be some forgetfulness on the part of the rain, and that, instead of ceasing after giving us 30 or 40 points, it might continue till everything gets a thorough "so.aking. In spite of the catchy weather an immense "amount of harvesting has been done, and the work is well forward —in fact, it is further ahead than most growers bargained for when they commenced operations. The crops seemed to come in all at once. They died off rather than ripened, and rust and blight, I am afraid, had a good deal to do with it. One sees paddocks in stook and some in stack all over the country, and another three weeks of fine weather will see the back of 'the harvest broken. The thrashing mills are now out, and are busy with the grass seed and early oats. As soon as there is any of the wheat fit they will be into the stooks, and then the beginning of 'the end will take place In the meantime there is a great deal of crop standing dead ripe all over the country, and a lew fine days are wanted to get it down and into stook. Some of it, I am sorry to say, has gone as black "as your hat." Mildew and blight have played havoc with some of these late crops, and with some of the earlier,ones, too. As the harvest progresses it seems as if the prospects of a good yield are disappearing gradually. It was confidently expected that the average for the province would be 30 bushels per acre, but it now v < appears as if that tally will not be reached. Of course, there is "straw enough for 40 bushels on the average, but it is fairly certain that it is not going to thrash out as it should do. One sees some of the early crops as well as some of the spring-sown ones looking a very dirty colour, as if they had been smoked, and it is pretty certain that the grain that is contained in them will be second-grado stuff at the best, and that the yield will be poor. In some localities there are many acres.of that sort of thing, more's the pity. The hot weather in November, following an excessively we't September, parched and baked the ground, and gave the crops a hard time. Then dune the rains of December, which made growth very rank; but there has been something unhealthy about. it, and the result is that blight, rust, mildew, Hessian fly, and some kind of worm in the ground have all combined to rob the crops of the prospects of success which wero so prominent earlier in the season. I know that there are some who will say that this is the usual cry of the wheatgrower at this time of the year, and that later on it will bo seen that 'tho crops were not so ooor as the farmers tried to make out. A journey through some of the wheat areas and a few days' work among the crops would soon dispel any notions that may bo in existence regarding the attitude of the farmers towards tho growing crops. There will be some 40, 50 and nerhaps, some 60 bushel paddocks; but it is to 1)0 feared, on the other hand, that there will bo many 'that will run from 15 to 25 bushels an acre, and these will pull down the average very considerably. Then it must bo remembered that there aro many paddocks of heavy straw that have becomo badly laid, and much of the stuff is good for nothing. It is wonderful how much of it has been reaped, however. It has taken a lot of patience to do it, but a o-ood deal can be accomplished by workin-? the binders tho one way and by contriving- to cut out 'the blocks so that they can be handled to the best advantage There seems to be no scarcity of labour this season, though at one time it was feared 'that we should be left in the lurch. The wages that are being paid are evidently large enough to induce workers to come out of tho towns, especially those who have some knowledge of farm work. From 17s to £1 a day can be earned without much difficulty these times in 'the harvest paddock, and bovs of 18 and 19 are earning that much and are doing good work where they are under nroper supervision. I have seen instances where boys are simply going to ruin through being left too much to their own devices. Thev get up to all sorts of fcri-ks, especially if there are several to gether. They play and loiter and grpw careless, and form habits that will stick to them all their lives unless they are careful On the other hand, there aro boys who. with a little attention and interest on the nart of their employers, are doing as well as any men, and aro keen and good workers, < who can be trusted to do well, even though the " boES" may leavo them for a little while. A well-grown boy of 18 or 19 who has been brought up in the country and who wishes to give satisfaction is better than a novice from tho towns, and there can be no doubt but that he has a splendid chance these times, with tho wages that are now being paid. I know ono such boy who has over £IOO

in the Savings Bank at the. present time, and there aro others who have been ablo to invest quite considerably in war loan certificates. They are now earning the standard wage of Is 9d an hour for harvest work, and then they will go on as ploughmen at from 30s to 35s 'a week. Then as pickors-up in the sheds they h av . e been earning good wages, as the shearing has been an unusually long one. On the other hand, there are many boys who are not making hay while the sun shines—or, rather, they aro making it all right, but they are not stacking it away for use in the future. They aro frittering their pay away on trifles and on such things as motor bicycles, which will not help them to get farms later on in life. They will become the discontented ones in the future, and will cavil at those who are now saving and picking up at 'the same time all the information about their work that they can. Reverting to the harvest, it is to be hoped that we shall get fine weather throughout February, so that the harvest may be got in without further hindrances, as there is plenty of work to do afterwards in preparation for the "next season's crops. It Is quite an eye-opener to see how soon the stuff gets stowed away when there aro a few fine days in succession. Perhaps when the stacking and the thrashing get into full swing there may be a scarcity of men; but to judge by the way in which all reqirements have been met in the meantime, one would not think that there have been over 100,000 men drawn from the industries of the Dominion and put into the ranks. PLENTY OF FEED. The feed has hardened up a good bit during the past fortnight, owing to the fact that the weather has been a little finer than it was earlier in the year. As a consequence tho sheep are not scouring so much as they were, and are looking all the better for the change. There is

any quantity of feed about, and as a result the sheep can be given frequent changes 'to new pastures. This is a branch of sheep-management that is most important. The lambs got fairly dirty some time ago, and crutching 13 being done before they are put on to .the rape if the job can" be managed in between whiles. Weaning is in progress, as the rape is ready for 'the lambs, and as there is plenty of grass, for a good run-off, the lambs are doing well. It is essential that the lambs should have something to eat with the rape. There are some who object to putting in mustard with the rape, as they say that it smothers some of the plants, crowding things up too much. But there is not a great deal on that contention, and it is found by those who put in mustard with the rape that a fine mixture is made, and that the sheep do very much better with the corrective to the heating properties of the rape. Even the grass that is put in with rape when tho land is grassed down with that crop has a beneficial effect, and the addition of a few oats has a similar effect. There will be plenty of rough feed for the winter judging by present appearances, and the turnips are doing well, although they were for the most part put in later than usual. There will bo plenty of feed to last till the roots mature, and they will be all the better quality for the fact that they have not been put in too early. In the spring they will be found to be solider and in better condition than they_ would otherwise have been, so that there is some benefit from a later sowing provided 'that tho crops come away as they should do. It' is to be feared, however, that in some districts tho hares and rabbits are going to exact a big toll from tho root crops Ja'ter on when the grass gets a little scarcer. I have never seen so many rabbits about, as is the case this season everywhere, especially where there is any river bed for them, and shelter of other kinds. The Government ifl

not doing its duty in regard to the clearing of the river-beds and other waste lands, and the settlers have to surfer in consequence. One may see the pest in the riverbeds and on the adjacent roade m their hundreds in the early morning and in the late evenings, and they are just a 3 bad on some of the back roads, particularly if the land xa of 'U alluvial character and there is some gorse on it. Hares, too, are plentiful, and in some respects they are worse than the rabbits. They are certainly more destructive as far as roots are concerned, as they roam over such wide areas and they bite turnips in all parts of the paddocks, whereas rabbits will keep to one edge—for a time at any rate, —and stick fairly close to the shelter. The ctock are all looking well except where the lambs are scouring a bit too much, but I do not think that this trouble is very widespread, and in any case rape and stubble feed will help matters out a good deal. There will bo a lot of good stubble feed "this season, and if the lambs do as well as as they did last season on the limited supply of stubble feed that was available, they will do satisfactorily. The prices are not going to be as good as at the opening of the season as they were last year, but they may improve as the season. advances. Shearing is not yet finished, even on some of the front farms, although there is not now a great deal to do. Shearers who always stick to the front country say that they never remember being out so late, and they are now wanted for the stocking. In the back country the shearing is going on satisfactorily, and by the end of the month there should not be many unshorn sheep in these districts. The recent valuations have been better than the earlier ones, and some high prices have been realised—up to 23d for merino and 20d for half bred. The wool is not heavy this_ season, and that may account for the bigger prices that are being paid for the later and the better-grown stuff. Shearers in the back country are earning good wages. Some are getting from 50s to 35s a hundred, with shears for so many sheep, usuallv one pair for every 590 shorn. In spite of this I hear that in one or two cases there have been attempts to get up a strike Lucidly, there have been men who have said that a bargain is a bargain, and that they are going to stick to 'their contracts.