THE CROPS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 849, 23 January 1883, Page 2

THE CROPS.

Wakanui and Seaview.

[bt our special reporter.]

Yesterday I proceeded to the above districts to examine the crops and obtain from the various farmers the amount of land in crop on their farms, and to ascertain their probable yields of grain. Before proceeding to make any remarks I must state the fact that the districts of Wakanui and Seaview, although having fb’m and heavier crops than the adjoining district of Seafield, this year suffer considerably from rust and the ravages made by the grub in the spring of the year, while the latter district, Seafield, is almost exempt from either. Having questioned the farmers on this subject, and failing to obtain any satisfactory answer, 1 think a cause for so much rust is either that our farmers here did not use sufficient blue-stone when steeping their grain, or possibly did not steep it long enough ; either of which will result in the crops being more or less rusty. Of course the principal cause of rust is the damp or “muggy” weather, which produces it faster than anything else, and to this fact I shall attribute principally the cauce of so much rust in the heavy crops. The crops, however, look very well, and promise in many cases large yields. The oats are pretty generally stacked, and the wheat being dead ripe, the binders are busily engaged cutting this crop, and will conclude this season’s reaping in about a fortnight. Last month’s sou’-west gale I found did a great deal of damage, noticeably on the Seaview farms. Mr Thomas Welsh informed me that a good deal of his wheat has to be cut on one side of the field, owing to the straw being levelled by the storm, thereby causing great delay in the reaping and also expense to the ownei’. The first gentleman I called on was Mr Andrew Leatham, who has 100 acres of land in crop, of which 25 acres are in wheat, 30 in barley, and the remainder in oats. The grub in the spring destroyed a good deal of the wheat, which, if that had not happened, would have averaged 4.0 bushels to the acre, but now will yield about 30 ; the barley will thresh out 30, and the oats 40 bushels. The yield off this laud last season was wheat 14, and oats 20 bushels. Messrs Brown Brothers have 180 acres of crop, of which 150 acres are in wheat and 30 in oats. The rust is very bad in the wheat and has also slightly damaged the oats. About 12 acres of the wheat ou this farm was destroyed by the late gale. The crop will average 30 bushels all found. Mr Thomas Mynett Jones has a very nice looking crop of wheat of 70 acres, very free from rust, which will yield him at least 40 bushels to the acre. Mr John Bonifant has a mixed crop of 82 acres, of which there are CO acres in wheat, 14 in oats, and 8 in barley. His crop all round is lighter than his neighbors’, but will average as follows—wheat 23, oats 35, and barley 30 bushels to the acre. Mr Peter Lownie has 06 acres in crop, of which*so arc in wheat and 16 in oats, and notwithstanding that there is a great deal of rust, and the small birds have done considerable damage, will fully average wheat 40, and oats 30 bushels. Mr Charles Hill has 70 acres iu crop, of which 40 acres are in wheat and 30 in oats. The wheat will yield about 25 bushels per acre, and ten acres of good oats will run 50 bushels, while the remainder of the oat crop, which is off very light land, will scarcely realize 20 bushels per acre. Mr Charles Hill has also a very fine crop of'wheat at the Hinds, 193 acres of which, he informs me, will average quite 40 bushels to the acre. Mr Thomas Clephaue has 30 acres of oats. The crop is poor on account of the land not being skimmed. This -is a farm of srt)o acres, and next year Mr Clephane proposes cropping two-thirda of it, the Imd having been previously used for grazing purposes. Mr Kdwin Thomas has 140 acres of crop, 80 acres in wheat, and 60 in oats. The wheat is very rusty, and will average 30 bushels per acre, the oats are also slightly rusty, and will yield about the same average. The nor’-wester of Sunday last, I am sorry to say, also h'ew a good deal of the wheat out on this farm. Mr Samuel McLeary has 100 acres

in crop, half in wheat and half in oats. The wheat will average 35 bushels, and the oats 40 bushels to the acre. Here again Sunday’s storm knocked out fully 2 bushels of grain to the acre. From Mr McLeary’s I crossed the Wakanui '•reek, and first called on Mr Thomas W Uh, in the Seaview district. He has 165 acres of crop, 85 in wheat, and 80 in oats. There are 25 acres of really splendid wheat, which will thresh out quite sixty bushels to the acre. Tho remainder was levelled by the late sou’-west gale, which of course will not produce many bushels' to the acre. His oats will average about 60 bushels. Mr John Corbett, Mr Peter Stewart, Mr Thomas Wilson, Mr Meredith Wilson, and Mr Samqel Wright have all very heavy crops, but all more er less touched with blight, which represents cabbage blight, but their yields will probably be, wheat 40, and oats 50 to GO bushels per acre. There are also great complaints in this district about the wire used for binding, which is very inferior, and moat of it will not bear any strain, some of the sheaves bursting while being carried to the stocks. Mr Walsh has had to engage a twine binder to cut his crop, and he also informed me that he could purchase no wire in Ashburton strong enough for a Wood’s machine.