RURAL RIDES.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20168, 21 February 1931, Page 10

RURAL RIDES.

EXCEPTIONAL WHEAT DISTRICT.:;)^

THE WAIKARI-HAWARDEN CROPS.

• " No. xxi. .f: ;. (By ,H.A.M.) With the depressing estimato of the Canterbury wheat yield—26£ bushels to the acre—given by the Government Statistician, and the disappointing prospects in a number of Mid-Canter-bury districts, it is something of a relief to pull up tho car a.t the top of the Weka Pass and look down from the rim of the Waikari flat on the wide expanse of heavily stooked" ( fieldß of wheat. One does not need to have a.soul prompted solely by utilitarian matters to appreciate the picture unfolded. Thero is a variety of scenery from the hill" top that should hold the eye of even' the most -stolid individual —the result of the year's work spread out,before, him in the wide area of wheat and oats, varied here and there by the brightness of the green crops, and in the background the brown of the hills, while further away is the deep blue of the mountains, the peaks of which are still touched off by the snow. ; But — -

Practically, all the crop on the Waikari Plat is in etook. Though the country. is still dry, the recent rain being less heavy than in Mid-Canter-, bury, the moisture was sufficient to deI lay threshing, and only ono 'or two stacks of straw are to be seen. However, mills were to be seen on Thursday "pulling in." What little wheat has been put through has yielded fairly well. The/ rain has been invaluable, particularly in the threshing, as it has loosened the chaff, and made the wheat easier to thresh and. dress. Tuscan is hard to get away from, the chaff if it has not had*rain on it, and this ;3iffi: I culty results frequently in some of the wheat being cracked; and consequently not, such aa attractive sample. The ! rain has also conferred a very decided benefit on 5 the quality of the wheat,assisting it to mature better. Most of the wheat threshed prior to the raia last week had ripened with scarcely a shower on it, and the disabilities, mentionod have 'been more pronounced this" year than usual. A Good- Wheat Farm. ■) ■ In tfye Hawardcm district'SOHte'tlireshj ing has been done, -'though it has little .njoro than «jmmenced on thgf ds6i>Jtt"ito exc6l#'lor wheatgrowing purposes," A. hea%.'yfcrop of 30 acrs|' ojfcTusfeaia 6n Y f&efarfti;<>fMr J. Clarlk soh was -threshing out 06 bushels to the acre." A corner on the ridge, where th£ crop bad been knocked about by th<>' winds, will pull down the avetfage, but the prospects are that the 200 aeres cf wheat on the property will average a full 50 bushels, to the acre. Por such an extensive area this average will be liard to boat this year in thei province. One 'field on tJriß farm is in its 13th crop of wheat, and it promises to thresh equal to the yield (65 bushel?) already' mentioned. Another field, *now inMucerne, grew nine consecutive wheat crops. Two or three crops in succession would spell trouble on a good deal of Canterbury land, but .the heavy limestone subsoil in this part of the Hawarden district appears to supply all the plant food that even such a succession of exacting crops as wheat,requires. Very little wheat other than Tuscan is grown it) the district. It is the one variety that stands up successfully against the heavy winds, and- the soil is on- the strong-side 1 for Hunters.

New Wheat Varieties. Very frequently a "boost" is given to new varieties of wheat which subsequent experience discounts. 'As an instance it ,was noted in this column the. other Saturday the - poorest eropto be seen" on a Oust famv was the much advertised "90-day" Canadian variety. It had not in the country of

its origin to contend with hot gales such as have been experienced this Season all over Canterbury, probably the ,cause of the failure. Some years ago a trial was made in the. Ha warden district of another highly reputed variety—the Burbank! The result promised to oust all the varieties known in our farming. The Burbank was remarkably long in the .ear, and from the astonishingly low seeding of 151b to the acre four acres threshed 92 bushels and the lo&lance of an extensive field 88 bushels. The crop ripened and was harvested without a serious wind. There was - a great demand for the seed, which was sold at 10s a bushel. However, it didnot meet later with such favourable harvesting, seasons. The nor'-westers played havoo with it. To-day it is not heard of. The experience accords with the experiments at Lincoln College in respect of the uso of Tuscan as the basic variety in the raising of new wheats for Canterbury use. A Sheaf Elevator. In these days of sky-high threshing costs anything that will cheapen the operation should be welcome. On" the mill working on Mr Clarkson's property is a "sheaf elevator," an invention by a local mill-owner a couplo of seasons ago. The contrivance is a small edition of the straw elevator, and is attached to the side of the mill. It permits two drays to pull in, one at either side -of .the elevator, thereby saving all the lost time unavoidable under the ordinary system between the empty dray pulling out and the full one. coming in. .Five drays were in use—two in and three out. There is no forking up from the bottom of the dray to the board, the sheaves simply being dropped on the bottom of the elevator, which carries them to the band cutter, A "gadget" alongside, the cutter's knee enables him i to put the elevator out of action, if the sheaves are coming too fast, or for any i other cause. One of the two men forking on the single dray can be cmployed on the extra drav, so in effect a man's wages are saved and there is no delay .at the mill side'. In stack threshing the forker to the board can be done without, so that the. contrivance apparently, saves about £1 a day j and speeds up the threshing. "-It seems a contrivance that could be. generally | adopted. ; | The New Machines. On the farm of Mr J. Cunningham, on i the Hawarden-Hurunui road, a field of windrowed-wheat was being threshed by the header machine. The field was' averaging up to 35 bushels an acre, and i 60 bushels an hour were being put I through. . One man was. driving the trac- ! tor and two -were -on the bag stand, I whilst a fourth was. operating with a ."sledge on wheels" collecting the sacks, which-were dropped-in a row,from,the header platform, at regular intervals, i The crop had -been-lying in the windrows foj a week,' and had benefited by , the rain that had fallen* The'sampile, , its, a matter of factj.'wasas. well matured' las could *be produced under any circumstances, "being entirely free of broken straws, etc.. On'another, part of-the farm a 40 acre field had been headed direct, and here ,80 bushels per hour had been put through; and where conditions were entirely favourable • the 100 bushels were threshed. The demonstration was quite impressive. . . The average* farmer has- looked ;upon these "n6w contrivances" with some suspicion, but it is fairly certain that if the proper instructions. are, observedand the. threshed-wheat is given some'time to' mature before being'sent to the miller, .most, of. this suspicion would -be allayed. " Mr' Cunningham makes a practice of darting by , the "sledge on wheels" .the sacks to apoint where he dumps them on end—if- on ground inclined-to be dafnp on,-straw. If cau'ght by the rain the sacks are upended on straw,. After soipe days .he lays 'down some 4x2 inch .pinus insignis scantlings, on which he crosses fence droppers. On , this' stand . he stacks 4-4-4-3 sacks. Six of thesp stacks of 10, or a total of 114, can be' covered comfortably by' a tarpaulin, and the , air can -get around, through, and under-' neath the whole stack. TheMen£th of , time required to mature the wheat-for milling is,dependent on conditions—the state it wax in when headed, and whether 1 subjected to rain, or the subset- , quent • unfavourable atmosphere-^but' I after a.month from being headedi the , sample under normal conditions should 1 be up to the best standard. , Green Crops. The rain of last week has ■,greatly i improved feed in the district, and some' good crops of rape are to be seen. A i proportion of the earlier ones'are well grazed down, but even on the lighter i land north of Hawarden there has been, a distinct recovery. Generally 'there isr much " less for farmers north of the Weka Pass to crinK i plain about than there is for those on , the plains. , ■ < . I The first of this season's North Can-i I terbury ewe fairfi will be: held at. Am-, j.berley on^Monday, March 2nd. . A t ' ' '' *