RURAL NOTES.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9653, 5 January 1910, Page 8

RURAL NOTES.

Farmers in the Sanuon district have finished cutting their rye and are awaiting favourable weather conditions for stacking and threshing. The high winds shat have prevailed of lata made it unprofitable to tmmUQ a ■crop of this kiud. Tlra u‘;uor cultivation this Reason ia aboct one thousand acres, trad in most instances the yields are expected to be rather less than last year. Growers are at a loss to explain . the reason, rstin conclude that rye, like .uxosfc ot.i-ar crops, is more prolific ia difieieitu seasons. Soma farmers, especially those with little experience in rye cultivation, feed their paddocks too long in the early part of the and it naturally follows than u the sheep nibble the seed stems in their early growth a fighter yiiihl oi gr*.4U will result. / „ ~ Those farmed , who have first call on threshing plants axe anxiously waiting for a.f/von'cable opportunity to commence / mreehing from txie etook. The 1 /isdom of thrashing from tho stocjx has often been uehateii ; it certainly saves one handling, which must mean a considerable saving in a crop that Bb l-os oat like rye does, beeic.es s ’.vtng the expense of stacking, on the ether hand tho m?.a who leaves his crop in the sfcook on the ouchanco of getting a machine takes the risk of losing the whole lot u the weather becomes wet, the same as happened last year. Crested nogs tail is another grass seed that is receiving considerable attention from farmers this season. The crops are looking well and the yield is expected to be equal to that or former years. The recent rains have had a wonderful offset upon the rape and turnip crops and there seems to be every prospect of an abundance of feed for fattening purposes, A few farmers have lost most of their turnips through the ravages of the fly bnt.the trouble has not been general. The caterpillar pest is also in evidence among some of the early oat crops bat their depredations have been greatly checked by the presence or large flocks of starlings. > Mr Jsts. A’Oonrt of Sandon has just threshed a paddock of self-sown Algerian oats that returned him the handsome yield of 60 bushels to the acre. The sample is a good one no difficulty being experienced in getting five bushels Into tho ordinary sack. It is seldom that a farmer gets results like this with the minimum of expense. In this case the profits will be considerably decreased through the carelessness of some person ia lighting a tire in the stubble, which ran before the wind and destroyed a reaper and binder before it could be extinguished.