FARMERS UNEASY.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXVI, Issue 13500, 9 October 1911, Page 7

FARMERS UNEASY.

DRY WEATHER AND FROSTS RETARD HERBAGE. (Per United Press Association.) AUCKLAND, October 7. The long spell of dry weather is causing farmers some uneasiness. Just around Auckland the conditions are not so had, but all through the Waikato and further south the growth of herbage is retarded for want of moisture. Several sharp frosts have been experienced and the pastures have suffered accordingly. September proved to be a particularly dry month south of Auckland, and nearly every rainstorm was followed by a southwest wind which dried up the moisture almost before auy material advantage had been obtained. What affected the dairy farmer and the grazier even more seriously was the fact that, concomitant with the phenomenally dry winter and spring, the turnip crop failed. Thousands of acres were nut under turnips this winter in the Auckland province, and the whole crop has been practically a total failure. The result is that hundreds of cows and a great number of sheep died of starvation, the pastures became practically bare, and the haystacks wsr demolished early in the winter. Usually stock-owners have been able to keep their cattle in good condition through the winter months bv turning them into the turnip fields, and store stock so fattened have always been worth at least JEI more iu market value than those which have had to rough it for winter fodder. The failure of ° the crop this year, therefore, has been largely responsible for the high price of beef and mutton, and kine which should now bo sleek with pasturing amongst much rich herbage are, instead, emaciated for lack of sufficient winter feed. The season opened with an early spvin/. and had good growing weather pvcValid there would have been a record established in the dairying industry this year. Even now, if satisfactory rains fail within a week, the position will not be so bad. Butter, however, has probably readied its lowest price to the consumer. The Loudon market is wonderfully firm, and the New Zealand exports will meet with a big demand, but should the drv weather u;Ttinue—and already the hills show signs of burning—then the outlook for iho s. asoa will be indeed serious.