LAKE COUNTY.

Dunstan Times, Issue 981, 4 February 1881, Page 3

LAKE COUNTY.

(prom our own correspondent ) The most engrossing subj -ct before ns is the harvest, and it is really a great p'oisnre to recount 'hatamr f rulers will experie- ce highly satisfactory results in the bounteous yield off the many acres of golden giain now daily falling before the ever busy reaping tna'diine. The crops, as a rule, never looked better or promise 1 a larger return. The season has been all that could be desired and still continues most favorable ; and whether it has been for sowing, crowing, or reaping, the periods of sunshine and rain could not have been more suitable. The threshing machines not having commenced work as yet, no exact return can he arrived at; but there can be no error whatever i" estiraaring, in a considerable number of cases, that the yield will be between 40 and 50 bushels to the acre, and in some instances even more. The great staple cereal crop of the district is, of course wheat, which if not locally saleable, can be sent to Invercargill eilher for nso there or for export to the Home country. It being, there f oro, , readily marketable, farmeis have grown it largely. Oats are, of course, always a saleable crop to a large extent, as the horse traffic of the district— especially with pack horses neccessi tales an enormous consumption of tndder. But our growers do not care about accommodating themselves to the low prices offering, and this description of grain is brought into the place to a considerable extent from Southland, which produces oats much cheaper than we can do here, railway and steamboat cairiago included. However, we do not grumb’e, and while Southland is so good a customer to us for wheat, we have no objections to take soma of their oats. The String Binder Harvesters, two of which have been introduced (and 1 hear that a third is coming) by enterprising individuals have not proved a success as yet, while they have been a source of very great trouble, loss, and expense to their owners. They appear to bind a few sheaves very well ; then they will miss as many more; consequently where the owners of these machines have undertaken to cut crops they have been compelled to give up their contracts, and the Reid and drey and the Nicholson machines are supplying their places. The wire binders appear to be more successful; still they have many faults, and it is very questionable whether, considering that we have such heavy crops, and the country having no very extensive areas of fiat table land, it is not more profitable to stick to the Reid and (trey or the Nicholson until such times as the success of the string hinder has been thoroughly and unmistakeahly established. In a remote district like the Wakitip where labor is so dearfarmers are now paying Is per hour for harvest raen--harvest operations require to he carried out without the bare possihi ity of failure, which would be ruination to small growers, as most of them aie here

I Excepting on some of the sta'ions np I Lake Wakatin, where they are overrun | with rabbi s, the wool harvest has been a very sa'isfactoiy one, the various clips being much larger than has been the case for some few years past. The fine mild winter has pennitte I a much larger inc ease, a very important matter with small ruuholdcrs in this mountainous district, as, in a number of cases, the average of the stock can only ho maintained by annual importations from downcountry Hocks. The keai is also very destructive, more especially du.iug the m mths of May, June, and .Inly. These birds alwavs attack a Wool y sheep by settling on its loins, when they will pick into the spine and into both sides of the small ribs, and finally separate the spinal cord, when the unfortunate sheep dies. The Maori hens then make an attack and bare a large portion of the carcase, when the keai will again set in, and nothing remains of the animal save the skeleton and the torn akin. Some of the keais hj ive been known to kill a -heep with one. two, or three well directed blows of its pows fni hooked bill ; * and one rttn-doldcr in the Matatapn Valley informs me that out of a fl >ck of 1000 running in a paddock there in May last 105 was killed by these destructive birds. Sheep are only safe from their attacks just after being shorn. Mining is of course, the next item ot importance, for without that hr inch of industry it is impossible t > say what we should do. There is nothing new in re-sp-ct to the reefs at Macetown, and I think I fully describe 1 everything in my last. However, as there is no move in quartz mining itself, there is a little stir in matters connected witli it Some enterp'ising parties have taken up some 40 acres of hush in the Matatapn Valley in the Glencoe Rushes, and there is little to doubt hut that tnming timber and firewood will, during the coming winter, be delivered at Macetown at one half the present cost. Carriage from the Arrow to Macetown has also been very much re need j and a number of little drays, made to lit the road on the mountain track, are taking up goods at L2 per ton. Carriage has also been dtopped to 10s per ton from Kranktnnto Attowtnwn. Mining material, provisions, and feel should now be much cheaper at Macetown than heretofore. In fact, the high prices of everything at Macetown is a very serious drawback to i s progress. Now that the people .have shown how easy it is to cart goods to Maoetown over a difljjult road, the Country Council should put themselves about » Ijttlo and make things easier, by assisting in the shape of sundry •ini' prnvemnls to the no 1 ns it now is ; and a j WSiJ minerate outlay would accomplish \ this. A t t}ic. Government have promised ii to subs iliz ) any efforts in this ditvc ion to ■' the extent of £ for £ A reasonably poselblo dray road to Macetown should uo longer remain aditS-ultv. A very god til t! u rush hislate'y taken i place at White Chapel fail, about throe

miles down the Arrow River from Arrowtown, 'Die discovery was made by tho road party encaged making the road to t.be new suspension bridge crossing the Kawarau River. Tbe sinking \s very shallow —from two to four feet - anil some of the parties are making by box sluicing from li'd to L 5 per Week. There is a largo area of ground to be operated upon hero, and which will be occupied during the coming winter months.