SUMMER HAS COME

Waikato Independent, Volume XXX, Issue 2425, 9 December 1930, Page 4

SUMMER HAS COME

BRILLIANT WEATHER. .HARVESTING IN FULL SWING. / Following a period of rather depress- : ing weather x with a continuation of cold, unpleasant winds, with frequent rain, aiid generally miserable conditions, we arc now enjoying perfect * summer. For the past ten days or so we have had almost unbroken sunshine —fine warm days with little breeze, and an almost entire absence of rain. During the past few days in particular ( it has been very warm —quite like midsummer heat. Farmers are taking advantage of the fine spell, jfnd harvesting operations are in full swing all over the country. So far there is little haymaking. Farmers have found by experience that thero is generally great difficulty in harvesting hay before Christmas, owing to unsettled weather. Consequently the . great majority now leave their haymaking operations until a little later , oil. During the past few years increased attention has been paid to ensilage making. Ensilage is an excellent fodder, its properties in some ways being superior to hay. It has also one big advantage, in that it can bo harvested without regard to the weather —an ini- y portant factor in a district like South Auckland ,where there are so few stretches of dry weather during early 1 summer. Ensilage is being made in a great many farms in the Cambridge district, and excellent crops are being gathered in. Despite much cold weather in the spring, there has been an abundant growth of grass, and there are heavy crops of grass for both hay and ensilage in the Cambridge • district.