THE COUNTRY.

Evening Star, Issue 3148, 22 March 1873, Page 3

THE COUNTRY.

Taieki Ferry. —Since my last letter, farmers in this district have been employed late and early in securing their crops while the fine weather lasted, and there are now very few places in this locality whore the grain is not all stacked and ready to be threshed. Generally speaking, from all accounts, the harvest has been an abundant one, and much superior to last -season’s crops. —Some excellent fat stock have lately been sold in this district at fair prices, and some of the settlers are beginning now to be more alive to the advantages of rearing both sheep and cattle, which certainly offers more inducement in the way of profit than agriculture, as in the production of grain the farmer has two things to contend against, viz., the high price of labor, and the low market value at present offered for his produce, both of which obstacles are done away with to a great extent in the case of rearing stock. Everything in the way of trade looks very healthy at present, and storekeepers certainly have no reason to complain of “ hard times,” as the number of men employed in connection with the railway cannot tail to give a considerable impetus to business, in the consumption of provisions. The warm weather here is now pretty well oyer, and already the sharp mornings and evenings are making themselves felt.—A thin covering of snow was visible on Maungatua in the early part of the week ; but I trust it will be some time before we are visited with much of it in the low lying parts of the country.