RAIN HELPS CROPS; FARMERS SMILE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18959, 4 January 1930, Page 7

RAIN HELPS CROPS; FARMERS SMILE.

DOWNPOUR MEANS BIG THING TO COUNTRY. The downpour of rain on Monday, December 23, has proved of enormous benefit to the farmers, though it resulted in much inconvenience to people in the city who were engaged in Christmas shopping. A Christchurch grain merchant who toured through the farming districts of North and South Canterbury just before the rain and has since been through the same districts, told a reporter yesterday that the change had been so remarkable that it was difficult to recognise the country as the same. The rain, he said, did the maximum amount of good on the medium and light land, but all growing crops had benefited enormously and it was worth hundreds of thousands of pounds to Canterbury. “I have felt like whistling with joy ever since coming back to my office, because the farmers I have met are all so cheerful,” he added. “Wheat, oats, rj’egrass, peas, potatoes, barley, pasture lands, in fact everything, benefited by the rain, and the downpour was so substantial that it soaked the ground sufficiently to carry the farmers through to harvest time if no further rain falls. . “The whole of the crops in Canterbury are looking magnificent. The majority have sufficient straw to carry a good crop and they look absolutely alive. Everything is vastly improved and all that is needed is warm sunny days such as we are now having. The weather today is just ideal and if it continues until next week it will add bushels to the yields.” The merchant said he did not think that the yields would be a record, but the rain had saved them from being much smaller than last year. The rain had simply made the root crops because they were wholly dependent on a good rainfall. Some of the late-sown crops were doing badly until the recent heavy rain, but it had been such a benefit to them that in some cases they were likelv to prove better than those sown earlier. The all-round improvement in the crops was particularly welcome on account of depressed vaiues for lamb and wool. Until the recent downpour the farmers were threatened with poor yields from their wheat, oat and potato crops and the outlook was far from promising, but now. fortunately, that had all been changed and the men engaged in mixed farming were smiling happily. Every part of the province had benefited.