THE WEATHER AND THE CROPS.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11494, 29 January 1903, Page 6

THE WEATHER AND THE CROPS.

EFFECTS OF TUESDAY'S STORM.

The effect of Tuesday's hailstorm in the Prebbl«t<»n district has been wry wrious to potato, grain, and onion crops. Many farmers* who were looking forward to large yki.ds, especially of oat?, will low (wiiu* our correspondent) have to be content with very indifferent returns. The crops that ■were just ready for cutting have suffered th-a most. Messrs GalLighar Bros., Campion, Williams, Millar, Small, Winter, and Watson are all heavy losers. Our correirpomleat estimates f/he loss at from 15 to 30 bushels per acre, and in some cas-ss even more. Wheat has not suffered m> badly, but, in many paddocks there is quite 10 bushels to the acre. thr<.sh«d out by the stw-iu. Tive potatoes have aco .sutftred bjdiy, the bioo.n in some paddocks bring eruire.y cut ntf. Mr I'eryman stales that in the lai Tapu district it is even worse. A crop ot oat? thai he estimated to yield SO b;ah<>ls to the acre. i*e is quite sure will not go more than 20All his neighbours round about him U-ive •uffervd more or les.*. Our correspondent tends us a sample taken from Mr U. Smith's paddork of rxits at Lincoln, which, Lp f-tiiXts, speaks for rt.'*;lf as to the amour,! of damage cone. Mr Smith f-tnrted cuLtir.)? •n Tuesday, and the ireichune li;id only dnno three rounds wlien the storm came." The remainder of tho. 27 acres wer° tli :•'.■* ho ■] by the storm, and it is problematical whther it is worth cutting. "Ruined Farmer" yends us a sample of oats a« they appeared after the storm. Every *«r is eir.piv. The sampe vra,-. taken from a 70 to 75-Dushel crop, reduced to about 8 to 10 bushels. Tfap. remains are indicative, ha state*, of the devapt-atirm caiu?d in the Piebbleton, Lincoln, and Broadfields districts, where the hailstones were ac larze rk pu!lets' eggs. The nail which fell at Harwell, write* a correspondent, n M of two kinds, the ordinary round ball of compressed snow. as it were, followed by square blocks of transparent ice, frequently spiked at. ench corner. Grain approaching ripening suffered much, pens sp!ifc in pods and «ta'k and in one case five neies of turnips were Wotted, out. In hi« back paddock our correspondent and another man- both detected, from afar, a pungent smell of onion*, caused by the May in which the*e <aojis were bruised and lacerated. A £owl crop of gnu*.-* sped which he was preparing to cut was completely ruined. Mangolds were very badly cut about and Mripped. Apait from "hail, the heavy Jain haa done much damage. Crops unusually heavy are nejv exceptionally flat, and a decreased yie'd and deteriorated Mamplos may he, expected, compared with Saturday's prospects. The hurricane which pased over Ashhurton on Tuesday afternor.n, besides doing the damage already reported, shattered the back roof of Mr H. Milsom's lemonade factory, and lifted the roof from Mr Cruras mixing ehed, depositing it in an empty section, oppc*ito St. Stephen's Churoii. From accoipts of eye-witnesses vr\-.n have been interviewed, it'would appear that two heavy gaks were approaching Ashburton —one from the pouth-weet, bringing with it hail and elect, and the other from the north-west. These winds appeared to meet .md join forces' just below Tinwald, a.nd then made Iα the direction of Ashburton at an alarming rate. The noise overhead deafening, er> much so that hundreds «f people rudied out of the business places to ascertain the cause of the disturbance. The course taken by the hurricane wae a zig-zag one, as while Borne buildings were considerably damaged others close handy were left untouched. Large sheets of corrugated iron flew about like pieces j»f paper. One large sheet struck a cart utanding outside Mr Stonyer's auction roome, to "which was harnessed a draught roare belonging to Mr McAlister, of Greeiwtreef. The end of the shaft was cut right off, and the iron pierced '■he shoulder of the animal, inflicting a bad flesh iround, several inches long, which had «t once to be sewn up.' Other damage of n minor nature is also reported. A child playing in fhe vicinity of the 00-operative - Store at the time the storm struck the building had £ narrow escape. A sheet of corrugated iron from the roof landed where the child mm playing, striking the little one on the leg, inflicting a bad wound. No other accidents have been reported. The work of repairing' the. Co-operative Store has already been commenced. About 40ft of the structure will have to be rebuilt. A heary downpour of rain pawed over ibe Aehburton. district yeaterdav. Some «f the beavj crop* in tie Waknnui district have been laid low, and similar accounts come from the Longbeach and surrounding district. The .weather is etill unsettled, and unites a sudden change for the better takes place many of the standing crope will be nearly "ruined. Our Waikari correspondent writes: —- " The unseasonable weather of Monday ■was followed by a trfrit* frost during the early hours of Tuesday morning, thin ice vrtm found on -water tubs out of doors. A cold drenching rain has been falling since mid-day on Tuesday. Threshing from the stook is delayed 1 , and is not likely to be continued for some days, as the present -unseasonable weather appears likely to last."

The etorra on Tuesday wae not very severe near the Rakftia townehip, bat a 8 trip over the Doric district suffered considerably. M«»n E. Richards and H. Harrison appear to be the worst stiff ereis. The heary rain on Tuesday night laid many of the crops, but on tliey are but little broken they wiil come up again with fine weather. Showers fell yeeterday morning, but the afternoon was fine, with a nice drying wind. As showing the erratic course of the rain on Wed߀jsdl»y, a correspondent states that in the city it was not-mining up to noon. A prtaenger north came jnto rain at Papaii»i, where it had been falling for three hours. At Kaiapoi ifc was quite dry. Reaching Rangiora there had been an hour's .rain. Over a narrow strip at Ssfton there was something equal to a> flood. Th«nce to Amberley and Greeney'e and Cilaenerin it was quite dry. At Waipara it was coming down hard, and the information beyond was that heavy rain was descending across the Waikari Taller. On Tuesday evening a light hailstorm passed ©rer Flaxton, across the native reserve, part of Woodend and Waikuku, out to. eta. near the mouth vt the Ap hley. Though it was apparently serious enough at the time the damage to crops yeeterday seemed to be comparatively light. There was an accompaniment of vivid lightning and loud thtmder. ■ In the Eilesmere diatrict the storm yes- | terday wae disastrous.to the crops. * A KiHinohy farmer was left with only tire bushels of oais unspoiled. Mr Ho-stg, at Lees ton. had a cumber of window* broken by the 'haHetonc*, and his crops were ruined, Mr A. Webster, Mr D. McClure, •nd Mr Thompson were also heavy losers, through the destruction of their crops. The storm left its mark on the Musetun, where between twenty and twenty-five panes of glass in the skylights in tl»e Ethnological, Statuary, and New Zealand Rooms were broken. * Fortunarelv m> other damage was done. At Waimate the hail was very large, and played havoc wherever the eto'rm traversed, especially in gardens, by stripping aJI kinds of plants, and leaving nothing but the stems. The grain crops do not appear to be much injured, except in the one case in the suburbs of the town, where a tenacre paddock of wheat was completely cut down, and is not worth cutting. The storm was confined to a narrow etrip. and passed out to sea. Snow lay a couple of inches deep, and raowballing was indulged