NOTES FROM CARTERTON.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1379, 4 March 1912, Page 8

NOTES FROM CARTERTON.

SOMETHING ABOUT THE CROrS. Most of the crops in the Cnrterton district aro safe in stack, writes our travelling correspondent, and on the whole they fjivo promise of being fairly satisfactory. There is a good deal of light stony land, which grows a, nice finality cf oats, but does not yield any great length rf straw. Several fanners told me they consider a two-ton crop of chaff as being good for this district. Of wheat rather more lias been grown round Carterton than Masterton, at least so far as my own observations havo shown. Mr. G. Stevens has iv nico little, crop, which has yielded fifty bushels. The weather had Isuen so unsettled that ho decided to thresh from tho stook. I saw two paddocks in the Waihakeko district, in one of which the binder was at work. I am afraid it will turn out , on the light side, tho straw being very short with small heads. Chaff-cutting is being pushed on with, and as tho plants are few, farmers aro impatiently waiting for tho traction engines to pull in. £3 10s. seems to be the prico for prime chnlf, and four shillings for wheat. One farmer told me ho expected to get 4s. Gd. What looked to me strange, is the smallness of tho stacks. Any amount of them will nut go more than seven to eight tons. However, as they aro mostly in small paddocks, they are probably in keeping with other conditions. On inquiry I found the farmers nro paying nine shillings a ton for chalfcutting. This is not an exorbitant rate. A good deal of time is lost in going from one farm to nnother, besides which the numbers of stacks to be dealt with are much smaller. I have seen no farms in tho Wairarapa with thirty to fifty stacks to cut. A good deal of niaizo has been planted α-oiind Carterton, but most of tho plots are in a backward state, and nearly all have been frosted.