CANTERBURY AND ITS CROPS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 668, 19 November 1909, Page 10

CANTERBURY AND ITS CROPS.

;:;:;,: CAN. ; :WE;.CUEE TURNIP FLY? ■ .'■ ■"' i .Farming-prospects'-, in. Canterbury;'just;',nqw may- .be "described' as brilliant. ■ ■ The .extensive sowing of. cereal crops, is: being favoured by better weather even-than'that which-produced , theabuhdant props of last-year, arid , very heavy yields : of'wheat'and .other, cereals, is ■ again'extremely i probable. . .The. /standing' , crops look better, than they did■ .at■' tbis^ tilne, of <:ia'st year; -In: , fact,, 'natural; causes; 'cbnibined ,, with the somewhat cqurageous v .faith, iri.ithe. ifuturo which wheat-grpvters, ; as^w'effi' : .a"s'^sheep";'and. dairy farmers, exhibited- inv.the last'few.;-; seasons of ■ uncertainty; seem^liltbly-.to meet a'.great: reward in",the season-now'beginning.'- One"thing that--seems rather scarce,- however, is old pastures. The. southern farmers last autumn 'went in for extensive;.renewals;.ploughing up itheir, old pastures , in .wholesale', fashion, and isovjing .'.-. new. grass ; •.■■with' ;: tho . wheat.' '[Nothing', biit ■'.the'"remarkably.''-'good, weather ''could...;,have'-.- averted 'a-; marked scarcity iib.f....-'grass';-,' The-;', wheat harvest,'however,' will soon •arrivel- and then' the, young.grass on, the stubble-will become available.; : There will bo' big.areas of thi^,'. : andwith iraprqyed.knbwledgo as to'tho-iriaiiitenance-of'grassg^nerally t there .is'every'.sign that , the Canterbury output of' grasS-fed proclu'co for .future .will, bo, much increased. -The North Island,will hayo U>. 'bestir Itself if it desires to'maintain the lead. in , increase.;which she , 'lately, established, for, Canterbury seoms.;,to v havb Seen doing things! handsomely, this season;:,';.'. ' y'. -.:•' .--, "■■'•- . The "silver lming,"!however,, has been somewhat; .tarnished-by. recent-'heavy-losses' of; shorn- , sheep, which occurred through stress of weather; Ono farmer who put.;7oo .'hoggets through the shearing-shed one day' found CB9 of thorn .dead in tho; paddock next morning.: fortunately ".'th'is'.wa's quite'• an-. exceptional disaster. And qn : the whole the 'weather has, been good, particularly, for tho'.. crop's.•; i.The rains of last month.which we're rather overdone in the north, proved very : -welcome; in ,, most parts of tho south.' Tho'rapo'and turnip crops havo made a, splendid.start,' and/although tho farmors aro.'feeling some little ,'approhonsion. over the aphis fly (always liable to.bo troublesome at this period of the year), still the recollection that a turnip crop well - started is half-grown greatly lessons ,tho anxiety. ■-'.__. /■ It is rather to bo wondered-at that the spraying of these turnip crops has.''never'--been seriously undertaken.' No;doubt spraying 500 acres of any crop. is < a vcritablo . "contract," but with a proper: outfit capablo-of spraying or twenty'rows in. one sweep, tho work .should pccuDj , ;: no longer time than tho work of spring cultivation. Spraying has,a stronger claim'to. attention even vthan,cultivation; for while cultivation .greatly improves'-,the crop, spraying.may at: times , be: essential; touts'very, existence.' Koroseno'emulsion: is the- '..most effoctivb;of all , .sprays on thc'-"fly";family,-'and it is'-nt the. srime time the 'cheapest.; In view of the ■Govorumeiit Biologist's improved l method of': emulsifying : the, kerosene oil, one may ex.

pect; that even.tho".spraying of turnip crops '(which may, perhaps, bo. regarded as tho limit of possibilities.in spraying) may yet to undertaken, just as wo now spray for tho blight of potatoes. .- ■:"'■:. ."" .' ■ :■' -.