SOUTHLAND AGRICULTURAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3339, 13 March 1918, Page 9

SOUTHLAND AGRICULTURAL NOTES.

{From Oub Own Cokbespondent.) Harvesting operations are being gcfe through rapidly, and crops secured in excellent condition. The mills are busy, and •very soon, with such ideal Harvest weather, the bulk of the grain will be bagged. Most . people are averring that they have never before seen such a continuance of fine harvest weather. __ Equally as "fine harvest weather has been previously experienced even in Southland, although it may have been the exception and not the rule. There . can be no doubt, it has come as a blessing to many, who. but for a 'favourable season,- with such shortage of labour, could not well foresee how they were. to necure their crops. The crops will, all the same, have been harvested and thrashed at an i earlier period than previously known to have been the case.. The pastures and turnip crops could stand refreshing and reinvigorating with a. - fairly copious rainfall. Many are complaining of the swedes getting blighted. There . is a little blight almost every year, but in some seasons it is more pronounced and more general. If it occur to any large extent it will affect the winter feed. Some seasons the earlier-sown swede? are most seriously affected, especially -if the weather gets so dry as to check their growth. The later sown, not having got to that stage when a oheck will affect them so seriously on account of still growing rapidly and at the height of their . vigour, seem /to better resist its influence. Be that as it imay, there are parties who hold that, if sown in October, there will, any season almost, be patches of blight; but if not sown until early in December they may escape blight altogether. The crops of swedes all over are now subject to what is called dry rot, which does not seem to affect them much until nearly matured, though there all the time. It is a matter which will command a considerable amount of attention later, and it does not seem as if the true cause of it has been discovered. It will bo very much, worse than the ordinary blight has been proved to be. It i first , affects the tops, Ji then it . can be seen on the top of the turnip, working gradually downwards. Turnips may appeal- perfectly healthy until cut open, when the 'top of the turnip will snow it, being streaked all through 4, and disooloured. If it should so happen - that crops of swedes cannot be relied on, and being now so valuable for fattening and finshing stock, ', it will be little short of a calamity to farmers and graziers. In Southland particularly there is no other crop that can be fallen back upon ,as a substitute. Mangolds for various reasons will not suffice, and lucerne has never been' successfully grown in Southland vet, although it may in specially-prepared soil and suitable localities, to some extent at ■' least. Still, it is possible that the causes working against its successful growth as -a crop may be so overcome or mitigated as to make it a valuable forage crop for future use. Whether, in the event of swedes becoming an absolute failure, or. until the cause of the rot is found and a remedy discovered, hay cut at the proper - time / and used instead will help to obviate the trouble, it is difficult to say. It does seem as if nothing could so. fully and so generally take the place of swedes. In dairying, presumably, it might be better if fewer or no swedes were used - at all and more hay or other substances. Dairy cattle fed largely on swedes, and especially in breaks on paddocks, the same as other stock, do not do well at all. They do better without swedes altogether. That they are not doing well is seen when cows are observed dragging their hind legs and showing symptoms of paralysis. If taken off and put on a change of feed v they will often immediately . recover. The 1 proper treatment in wintering and feeding dairy cattle is not sufficiently attended to, and is a long way behind what is absolutely required for the healthy condition of the cattle, and is greatly against them doing as tjhey' ought to the following season.

Those who have been entirely dependent upon dairying, even in a small way by supplying cheese factories, manage, under adverse or difficult positions, not only to pull through, but almost always improve their position financially. Dairying operations have assumed considerable proportions in Invercargill within the last few years. A little over two years ago there was only one butter factory, and now there are three—all butter largely. The turnover of these factories is rapidly increasing. This annual eupply is . rapidly on the increase During one period of the season the- weekly increase was about .J. 300 gallons of cream. The suppliers are chiefly parties milking a few cows, and, instead of making butter, do home separating, as \,he cream can be more easily handled than the butter, and pays better. It is generally allowed that, this having been a fine growing season, weeds of all sorts are worse than usual. Some seasons in November warm, dry winds prevail, and weeds getting turned up and constantly stirred about get completely destroyed. This season, owing to frequent spells of showery weather, they are giving more trouble. There have been dry spells enough to help kill either couch or sorrel, but these periods may not have lasted long enough to be thoroughly effective. Yarr, some say, is not so bad where lime has been applied. One party who has used lime fairly freely, and-is observant, says that since using hmo he has not had the same trouble with yarr. The yarr was there; but in his opinion the extra, growth of the turnips after the lime and liberal manuring pushed the young plants so rapidly ahead that he could deal better with the yarr. On one part of a paddock" he put in a second crop of turnips, and the crop came on even more rapidly than the previous year, and less yarr showed up from the very start. He also thinks that where the ground has been more frequently cultivated and cleaned, after a period it (the yarr) does not come away so strongly at the first. It is certainly a pernicious weed to deal with, but good farming and intense cultivation will check both yarr and couch sufficiently to make them less troublesome. Where the soil is dry and lime sufficiently applied eradication of all weeds will be less difficult. The Noxious Weeds Act is not being so rigorously enforced this season. There may bo something in the fact that on the part of farmers its requirements cannot be complied with. For the_ same reason fences, ditches, and even buildings cannot be attended to as in normal prewar timas. . .