OAMARU.

Otago Witness, Issue 3335, 13 February 1918, Page 23

OAMARU.

February o.—The bulk of the crops in the district are cut and in stoolc. A lot. of new binders came here this year— I noticed one lot of eight M.H.'s which came in on one day. Curious thing how this machine has ousted other makes of what were the loadin? machines some years ago. When the binders caint out first a then Oama.ru firm

sold 75 :i; one season, and as their commidaion was 610 per machine they made a fine litrte haul that year. The binde*men have-Lceu .making a rot of alterations, but

these are often of no value, and tho binderwhip is a worthless affair. The sheaf-carrier is a great labour-saver: it reduces the coat and labour of stooking by fully a half, even if the sheaves a.re • laid down in twos only. Unfortunately the farmers have a prejudice against its use. I worked one this year, and in the wheat, when going up an easy incline, carried two sheaves and dropped ona and one for a few rounds. It was a 50 or GO bushels per acre crop," and in both cases there was no difficulty in working the canier. The . farmers here let their cropa get too ripe before cutting thein. The Milton and Southland farmers if they came here would start cutting from- a week to a fortnight sooner than the North Otago farmers. They would expect the grain to ripen in the stool:, and this year the sheaves were often not dry enough to stack after being cut a fortnight. A former Milton agent told me this was his opinion also, especially as the farmers were " scared" of north-west gales, familiarly called " nor'-westers." Of course, we do not now hear of the wonderful yields of years ago. That is not to be expected after 50 years' farming without building up the land. There are some fine samples of wheat. There has been siich a lot of showery weather, but the stooks look clean and fresh. There is often a big undergrowth of grass and weeds among the crops, which increases the draught of the binder. Big Deals in Cattle.—A couple of Wanaika men have been to the front in this line. Mr Theo. Russell lately bought 150 Hereford bullocks for sale in small numbers, keeping them meanwhile on his farm and some leased land. Mr William Kingan, of Alma, lately bought 180 steers in Invercargill, and trucked them to Alma at a cost of aboiit 6s a head. After such a long journey they die down mostly' all the time for a couple of days, but do not go off in condition. Mr Kingan has 165 acres, nearly all in grass, end- this is not allowed to remain too long, being renewed at frequent intervals, and it has a rich green colour. One 19-acre paddock had 500 head altogether through it this spring.