FARMING IN CANTERBURY.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1561, 3 October 1912, Page 10

FARMING IN CANTERBURY.

VIOIU" SMALL CEREAL CliOl , . CoinniL'titinj; on farming matters in Canterbury, our Christ church <-nrres|>uii(l9nt has (he following lo .<ay:-".\ late frost on Holiday morning touched up some of tho early potatoes in Iho gardens in anil about C.hrii-ti'imreli, lull not a gnat ilral of h reported. Recent rains have had :i most beneficial elfecr in the coiiiilry. Tli? hill country r?c;'ivod n coating'of >,now on hiuutlnv, but it soon, cleared off. Oan or two fro.-ls have boon experienced in tho * Amnri district, but tho grass' is .waking vigorous growth, fjtu-gc areas are l>? ing sown in pea craps in the Ashburton County .this reason. Owing to tho lateness in .preparing the ground, tho area under cereals will I;;; liic smallest recorded for at least ten years. In view of the unusually law acreage that is Ijring sown in root crops, it is obvious that ii large number of sheep will have to l>3 imported into the district during' the summer an;! autumn months. "Reports from South Canterbury indicate that tliera is. an abundance of farm work of all descriptions offering, but very few applications i'ur posls. My. A. Thorenu, of tho .Farmers' Cnion Employment .Bureau, stntcs that h? has between fitly and sixty vacancies for pioughmen, but lias ii-it hail a «n;rli? application since last Tuc-idiy. Other branch , . , - of farm work are nlso suffering, the pr.sifiyn .more. acute nov.- than it ha'-« b?en for some years past. The trouble, Mr. Thnreau say.?, is not inersly a local one, and until the Government institute a thorough system of. immigration the fnrniers will, he ??ys, simply have to 'sit •tight' and.do nothing."