NOTES FROM SOUTHLAND.
[BY AN OCCASIONAL COUUKSrONDENT.]
The weather here has throughout the season been of a most unfavorable description for harvest work. There wore heavy iloods during March, which did immense damage to grain standing in stook. In several places on the Jacob’s lliver Hat, I am told, whole paddocks of wheat, oats and barley have been carried away to sea ; I have also hoard that the liivcrtun beach for many miles is covered with sheaves. Had the weather been but moderately fine, farmers would have done very well, for the grain ripened early, and there was a very good yield. The growing of wheat has not been attempted on a large scale this year; all the large estates have given up growing the cereal, and the small farmers, as a rule, only raise suflieient for homo consumption. As far as I can learn, wo shall have little or none for export ; what wo have is more or less damaged, and under any circumstances will not bo lit for threshing before October next. Oats, some of which have been in stook for upwards of live and six weeks, have in many cases sprouted badly. However, during the present month, we have had a few spells of good weather, and every ellorlod having been made, the harvest, is now, with the exception of a few odd patches, in stack. The late wet weather has had a wonderful effect upou the turnip crop, winch at one time, it was thoucdit, would turn out a failure. I think I can venture to say that all green crops hero will be fully up to the average. Our pastures have again resumed their verdant appearance, and grass is abundant everywhere. This is evident from the fact that upwards of 50,000 sheep have found their way to Southland from Canterbury during the last month, and there are to my knowledge other.Jarge lines to follow. The
present demand for good young sboep has no doubt set in, not because we shortly anticipate a better market, but because so much land has been during the past two years laid down in English grass. Fat and store cattle are, nevertheless, very dull of sale, and draught horses are almost unsaleable at any price, although good backs realise fairly good rates. To afford your readers an idea of the state of things here, perhaps I could not do better than give an account of a clearing sale which took place a few days ago on the Gladfield Estate. Seven hacks were sold at their full value, while all the draughts had to be passed in without even a nod. Twenty-five fat pigs, weighing on an average 1501 b, at 23s each. The farming plant and implements were almost given away ; 8 sets of (i-leaf harrows, at £1 per set; fi Cambridge rollers, which cost £25 each three years ago, at £2, £3, and £4, and one 8 h.p. engine, by Marshal! vod Sons, in working order, at £l2 ; 4 broad-cast seed sowers, by Duncan, nearly new, at from £4 to £6 10s. Of course, the terms were cash, which no doubt accounted to a very great extent for the low prices obtained. The price of land has come down very considerably, and this I look on as a good sign, for I think the present low price of land is the first step towards real and genuine prosperity. At the rate which was charged in the past for land, it was a hard struggle for a farmer to make a living even had produce continued to sell at the then high rates. Farming has never paid in New Zealand. We often talk of the past as a period of great prosperity, but that was not the case. Those engaged in pastoral and agricultural pursuits at this time incurred more debts than they have before or since. A few years back it mattered very little to the farmer whether ho could make a living out of the farm or not, as any deficiency in his account at the year’s end was carried on without a murmur, as well as a guarantee for any further advances he required for future operations. But this sort of tiling, no doubt, was too good to last. I hear of no one now being killed with kindness. The sawmilling business is very slack here just now, and several mills have had to give up altogether. First-class building timber can bo bought at the mills at 4s fid per 100 ft. superficial and second class at 2s fid do. So there is no reason for anyone here to build sod houses. The small birds are getting very numerous all over Southland, and unless some natural enemy is let loose among them, they will very soon become a greater nuisance than ever '■ -Mr Bunny” has been. The latter in some districts, I am glad to say, is almost extinct, and greatly on the decrease all over the South. To give your readers an idea of the state of the labor market, I may state that upwards of 15 miles of wire fencing has just been completed on the Gladfield Estate. The fence consists of five plain wires and a barbed one on top, a stake every eight feet, and the strainers six chains apart, and the price was Is 2d per chain. With your permission I may here reply to Mr James Keir’s letter, which appeared in your issue of February 22, in reference to the grass stripper. In the first place, Mr Keir wishes to know if there are any made outside of New Zealand, and, if so, will they save more seed than the New Zealand made article ? But as your correspondent has taken the wind out of my sails, I must refer him to his own letter, where he says that an importing firm in Christchurch had several made in England, which wore not nearly so good as those made since in New Zealand. Mr Keir then goes to ask if it was the same stripper I used for several years on Longbeach, presuming, no doubt, that they were improved every season. To this I may state that Mr Grigg bought one of the latest make each year, and they were all worked by myself; but as for improvements I saw none, neither could I find any improvements in the five strippers working on the Gladfield Estate this last season, although manufactured only a few months previously. On the estate in question, some 500 acres were run over for less than two and a half bushels per acre, out of a crop estimated to yield seven bushels. Mr Keir also wishes me to give particulars of certain alterations I suggested to a well-known firm in Christchurch, which I am prepared to do with the greatest of pleasure. Anyone acquainted with the working of a grass stripper is well aware that the greatest difficulty to contend with is the accumulation of straw and rubbish behind the beaters, which causes nearly every seed threshed out to fall to the ground. If this great waste is to be prevented, a stoppage has to be made every 12 or 15 minutes to clean out the box, which takes up a very large proportion of the man’s time. To obviate the necessity of so much waste and loss of time, I suggested to a firm of makers, whom I met at the Ashburton agricultural show, that the implement be fitted with one coarse riddle, as well as some contrivance to elevate everything on to the riddle, allowing nothing to remain in the receiving box but the clean seed. The cavings, which as a rule are seldom or ever worth the trouble of threshing, could be allowed to escape. As for plans and specifications, I consider it quite unnecessary for me to go in to this sort of thing, as any tradesman possessing but ordinary skill will readily understand how to carry out my suggestions. D, E.
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Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1420, 19 May 1886, Page 2
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1,337NOTES FROM SOUTHLAND. Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1420, 19 May 1886, Page 2
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