THE WEATHER.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16266, 17 July 1918, Page 8

THE WEATHER.

back countky still snowbound. STOCK MORTALITY UNKNOWN*. Mild weather prevailed in Christchurch yesterday, and n6 inconvenience w a /£used by the rain of the previous evening. The Telegraph De P a,^ m . reports that communication has at last been established with Oxford. The manager of Lake Hero " £ reports that tho losses of sheep * 1 not amount to moro than about 2M cut of a flock of 10,000 merinos. The tau of m o* r s front.of the „ill bo clearing fast, ihe loss i%-inter. ?f r 'Ukmson, of Woodliii^ used to clear traces uvu k through the snow, to allow tho stoc tSnittSXr five or; six weeks without feed provided that they do no, JTthe ''Farmers' Union. Advocate '), ."but at the end of that time they aro naturally very weak, and iftherc s rnsh of erowth m the spring it is ai roost impossible to P r^ ent t SS off, then The sooner tho st ck is rea.cn ed td either moved or fed after tho snow falls, the better. Sheep are very strong and can help themselves* a good deal fn getting along for them in the snow. When they bo come weak they will sometunes die when tbey are being moved, and they take a long time to get overthetjig check they have received. There is liable tobea breab in the "wool if they are left out for any length of time in the snow, and also a /erious loss at lambing time. Indeed, the effects of a big 6now. are pretty farreaching as far as sheep are concerned. Stock will do for some time on dry feed, but after a period they begin to suffer, and they die sometimes in goodly numbers; not always, howover. instances have been known where sheep have been on straw and nothing else tor five or six weeks, and thoy came out of the test very well, all things considered. "Where there are turnips, it is a good plan to plough breaks through the snow so as to allow the sheep ro Teach some of the roots. The strongest of the sheep will endeavour after a time to burrow for the roots, and if they are helped in the way indicated they should do all right. It is a good plan to have some roots pitted whenever snow is likely to fall during the winter. XJne turnip a day will do a store sheep which can also get at hay or Btraw Thcturnips will keep the sheep healthy And in. good order almost any length of time. The chief want of sheep that are being managed "under snow conditions is exer;cise, and this is sometimes difficult to procurbfor them., It is a good idea to plough, with tho snow plough, tracks for them to wander along. It will be found that they will take quite a large amount of exercise in this way, and do comparatively well. Still, sheep m snow under the best of conditions suffer a set-back, and the sooner it clears away the better for everybody.". At Hanmer Springs during the ijast few days the weather has been particularly mild, and springlike, and the snow has thawed very considerably. The melted snow was equal to 4.06 inches of rain, while .25in of rain actually fell on. Sunday. Passenger cars are running as usual. A shepherd on St. Helen's station came in from the. Clarence Accommodation House on Saturday last, wading waist-deep in snow. He reported four feet of snow in the valley and six feet on top of Jollie's Pass. The manager and a shepherd went, o'ac to St. James's station : on Sunday morning, over Jack's. Pass; driving a number or horses before them to break a track. Men on St. Telen's station started snowraking on Monday, so they should soon know the extent of the losses to sheep,, ©to. •,. .... In the Sooth Malvern district, high nor*-westers and rain have caused a rapid thaw, but snow, however, is still lying some inches thick in -many places. Sunday was an unusually cold and boisterous day, a oold nor'-west wind, accompanied by scenalls of lw, making matters very unpleasant. The melting of the snow has caused the flooding of the Selwvn river, which is now much above noi-mal. Some indication of the severity of the weather may he gathered from the fact that no Teheious services h"ve been held in the district for three Sundays.