A PHENOMENAL SEASON

Southland Times, Issue 19656, 5 October 1922, Page 7

A PHENOMENAL SEASON

HIGH LAMBING PERCENTAGE. A LITTLE RAIN DESIRABLE. %. Having just returned from Canterbury, a local commercial man whose business dealings cover a wide scope was talking on Tuesday about the weather, the crops, and the season’s prosi>ects in general. He said he had left Invercargill a week ago on such a morning as that was. —weather as good as December almost. It wss beauI tifully fine and warm up to Dunedin. There it was just a trifle cool. At Oamaru it became somewhat chilly. Further north there were signs of rain. In Christchurch it was decidedly chilly. He spoke to a Christchurch business man who said ’‘We have had rain, and it has meant a million pounds to Canterbury’.”

The value set upon the rains seemed exaggerated, perhaps, but on the way south again it was to be noticed how the grass was coming up and the grain was coming away. All put a wonderful new green sheen over the land, the first sign of abundant crops. The grass, he said, was something wonderful. He saw the f(esh growth all the way through to Invercargill from the windows of the railway carriage, and

that was a good criterion. Lambing was the next subject he mentioned, and he said 95 per cent, was fairly good, 110 per cent, was good, 150 per cent, was very’ good, but 200 per cent, was phenomenal. The weather for the lambing season in Southland had been ideal. Fine and mild. Monday night had the hardest frost for a month, and it had not been very’ serious. He knew of places all over Southland where the lambing percentage was round about 200 and even more. There was every prospect of getting good prices for lambs in the coming season, and he considered that alt the signs of the times pointed to an exceedingly good season. Although the weather had been so good for such a long time, considering the season, it is understood that the farmers, with an eye on the sprouting crops, are now awaiting the warm rain that will do much good at this time. The rainfall during September was very little, if any, below the usual for that month, but the almost entire absence of the cold sou’westerly gales that are sometimes evident during September, and have the disastrous effect upon the lambing percentage as well as the vigour of the young crops, has accounted for more than a little of the signs of coming prosperity. Last month, the bulk of the winds experienced were mild, warm nqjj-casters, and these with the occasional gentle rains in the immediate vicinity of Invercargill have worked wonders with the season’s prospects. But the district is getting dusty. The mud of the winter has dried up on the roads, so that every passing motor leaves a white fog behind. For this, and other reasons that the man on the land knows well, a little more of the summer rains that were threatening on Sunday and Monday, but did not come to anything, would be welcome.