THE HARVEST & PROSPECT OF CROPS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XI, Issue 655, 16 February 1859, Page 4

THE HARVEST & PROSPECT OF CROPS.

In so lav as sunshine and dry weather are concerned, the season has been as propitious for the harvest as the farmer could desiiv. But the high winds ]M-eva.iling gem-rally nil daylong, and sometimes -swelling into gales, have rendered working operations exceedingly troublesome and occasionally brought them to a'-standstill altogether. Of the w'Wt, probably half is severed from the ground, and' some secured in stacks. Our new country is under infinite-obligations to the inventors and per(eefcers of the reaping (otherwise clipping) machine. It is Cull fifty years since ing-enions men iirst applied themselves to the construction of a machine for the purposes of taking crops (principally having .reference to corn) from the land. This colony of New Zealand has just progressed sufficiently to re- . quire imperatively the aid of such machinery. We have such, and bt us feel properly grateful. The machines have been generally, perhaps we should say universally, doing their work wcvll, and thus also we have the great incidental advantage of having men enough to house our crops (if we are active) in good order.

A great many of the self-sown oats are cut, in any with the scythe, and secured in good condition ;Mn the wheat crops also there is much corn ripening and requiring the fanner's immudinto attention, particularly in this over-breezy country. Of barley, we have seen none cut,-nor indeed have we happened to see imy that will be ready for the scytiK! for several days. From the unavoidable lateness of the sowing of the crops last season there are but comparatively lew of ihe hand-sown fully fit for the harvest: much of what, has been cut, especially oats, has grown from seed shelled upon the ground in the last harvest.

The wheat crop appears to be in all varieties as to quantity, from/the 'very deficient to the good,or perhaps, when the soilis considered on which these so-designated good crops are growing, we should stay ..ni (lu> middling. T ho,".result cannot, we believe, bo looked iipqii as average; It is however, .^■^e re.Qulkctutl.tb'afe- in'1 very nearly all recently

reclaimed binds the crops arc unequal; many spots, from being low and wet or thin of soil, falling off, sometimes very considerably, as compared with the better parts of the field. But in this season very muiiy fielda have their crops thin on the ground arising from tho uncongenial wheat sell. We can state that there are variations in the average produce of tho several wheatfields which have come under our notice, from .12 bushels to 32 bushels per acre, and possibly some may on our fine-yielding Canterbury soil come up to 40 bushels per acre. Wo would not be considered to be prophets of evil, but wo are compelled to state a belief that the quality of the young crop will not bo good; that is, of such as is sufficiently advanced to afford the means of judging. Much of this was self-sown, and in the greater portion there is an appearance in the kernel of premature ripeness. It is open in the elmff and the kernel has a rough appearance on the outside. But it lias to be recollected that selfsown crops rarely come ripe altogether, and con.sequently even these samples are uneven in quality. Of the fields which were sown and tilled in a huahandlike manner, the samples which we have seen do not appear to be so good aa our fields annually produce. Much of the wheat crop is still quite green, and will not be fit to cut for some time. Some of the forwardest of this does not appear to be ripening kindly. The whole field in these cases has not one uniform tint, nor indeed in many cases the whole ear; one side of it (the under one as the ear leans) is of a dirty green, the upper side inclined

to a lighter colour —this has probably been occasioned by the action of the sun's rays upon the more exposed portion. But wheat ripening unequally, from whatever course it may arise, is, we believe, generally more or less deteriorated in the sample.

There is one point which we think in justice to the farmers of Canterbury should be motioned, and which shows very decided attention to their business; and that is the general freedom of the crops from smut—a disease propagating itself very freely on newly re-claimed lands, unless vigorously resisted.

After reaping, the farmer's next attention is due to the necessity of securing the corn staclw by early thatching them. It is i*eally vexing to see the quantity of wheat stacks about Christchurch, the results of the last year's magnificent harvest, which are severely damaged—some of them appar« ently rotting down from the want of a little. straw. At the same time there are hundreds, or, we might .say., thousands of loads of straw rotting, or being converted into occasional bon-fires, lying every where about. Nor is it apparently from the want of thatchers, for there are to be seen a great many very well thatched houses in all directions.

The oat crop, as a whole, is this year a more productive one than the wheat. Many of those which are cut and secured were self-sown, and were generally deficient. But those sown and yet standing, and some of them yet very green, are, we think, a full average crop. A great many of these are Tartar oats, a variety late in coming to harvest, and of a comparatively ordinary quality when they are harvested. So far as we have seen the qualities of the harvested oats, they are not first-rate. We have also seen some fields of mixed oats in which the potato or other superior oats were shelling out before the Tartars were ripe. This should be a hint to the farmers to be. careful in seeding their land with one description of corn only at one time. The custom in the colony of selling corn by weight has had a considerable tendency to make the farmers careless in the matter of quality. We believe that in England, where com is sold by measure, the weight of the measured bushel is looked upon as a nice criterion of. qualify. The barley crop is yet very backward. What we have seen looks very well in the straw, but is not so advanced as to enable us to make a guess at its quantity or quality. In < some cases, the crop appeals to be too thick upon the ground.

The potato crop appears very flourishing in the haulm generally, and, as far as we can see, we may count upon a full average crop.