THE NORTH ISLAND CROPS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1062, 28 January 1884, Page 2

THE NORTH ISLAND CROPS.

The very extraordinary and unreliable weather which has been experienced during the past five months (says the iYetc Zealand Times) is proving most disastrous to the farming interests of the colony, ard it is to be feared + hat, if fine and seasonable weather were to set in now and continue to the end of the wheat harvest, the loss that has been sustained by farmers would be almost incalculable. Shearing operations have been seriously delayed throughout, and flockowners who generally get through their clip in about six weeks or two months had to keep their ' 1 shearers for more than a month extra We are creditably informed, and believe the estimate to be a low one, that the extra expanse has amounted to 5s per hundred or 20 per cent extra. Luckily the fleeces do not appear to have suffered, as is very often the case in continued wet weather. The frequent rains which interfered with shearing proved most destructive in the hay field, and lucky indeed was the farmer who stacked his crop undamaged. We are not exaggerating when we say that in the provincial district of Wellington threefourths of the hay that has been gathered in will prove to be of very indifferent quality, and that nearly all the remainder has been completely spoilt by the wet. Such heavy losses having been sustained, it was hoped that the grain crops at least would escape, for farmers as p rule believe that a wet spring brings a dry summer. Had this been the case the grain returns would undoubtedly have been so large as to counterbalance all previous disadvantages. The wet weather experienced during the spring months was very naturally highly favorable to crops, as it induced a very vigorous growth. Wheat and oats do not, however, want to grow for ever ; there must be a period during which the grain can ripen, for without this both cereals would speedily die out. A very rapid growth having taken place, tha continuance of rain is now causing additional losses, for the haulm than would, under other circumstances have been lit to bear the weight of moisture that settled upon it, required all its strength to support its own length, and it was, therefore, unfit to withstand such a heavy downpour as that which, accompanied by a heavy southerly gale, occurred on Monday last. Reports of heavy damage reach us from all parts of the colony, and a telegraphic message from the VYanganui district is to the effect that farmers, finding it impossible to save their crops have turned their cattle into them. Fram the Wairarapa we learn that many fields of grain have been beaten down as if a roller had passed over them. An early change would, no doubt, save the late wheat, but with the experiences of the season, so far as it has gone, freshly in their memory, farmers have almost ceased to hope against hope. Such an unfavorable season has not been experienced within the memory of Ihe oldest colonists, and even that of 1862, when a large. proportion of the wheat crop was lost, seems to sink into insignificance. It .would De futile to attempt to make an estimate of the amount really lost ; but unless a very decided change takes place in the weather at once, many a fanner will find not a little difficulty in paying his way.