Interprovincial

New Zealand Tablet, 13 November 1913, Page 36

Interprovincial

The late rains have proved very beneficial to the district (rays the Timaru Post). Both root and grain crops are looking in splendid condition, and in the opinion of many never looked better at this time of the year.

The small birds are particularly troublesome in gardens in Ashburton this season (says the Ashburton Mail), the übiquitous sparrow being the principal offender. In some cases it has been found necessary to replant summer annuals, while the birds have destroyed whole beds of peas, even taking the peas from the pod. Some gardeners are doing a little amateur trapping with the hope of minimising the destruction by the pest. - .

An unusual catch was made from the Sumner pier one evening last week. One of a group of fishers felt a weight on his line much greater than is usually experienced in the locality. Conjectures were rife as to what had been hooked, and slowly and laboriously the line was hauled in. The catch was anything but fishlike when brought to the surface, and proved to be . a bicycle, ‘ borrowed,’ probably for the ride down from the city, and then thrown into the sea.

The Chairman of the Mackenize County Council, at the meeting held at -Fairlie, stated that he considered that nearly all the accidents at level crossings had occurred through the recklessness of the persons who had been injured, and that he did not consider that local bodies should be put to the expense of providing for the requirements of the Bill now before Parliament. With proper care no accidents need occur, but when travellers dashed across railway lines regardless of consequences they had only themselves to thank if an accident overtook them.

The inspectors and officers of the Agricultural Department (says the Otago Daily Times) are this year busy laying down and supervising experimental plots over most parts of the Dominion, and in Clutha, in common with other places, a good deal is being don© to secure and tabulate for reference results of cereal and root crops with various manures and under varying conditions in the different soils. This year there will be 300 plots in the Clutha-Bruce district, comprising the country between Milton and Clydevale. No fewer than 120 of these are being conducted at the clutha District High School. There will be experiments in oats, wheat, soft and swede turnips, lucerne, potatoes, carrots, kohlrabi, sugar beet, silver beet, chou moellier, thousand-headed kale, rape, tares, ryecorn, marrows, squashes, and pumpkins.