FARMING PROSPECTS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LVII, Issue 6510, 7 January 1882, Page 3

FARMING PROSPECTS.

(Canterbury Timet') Judging from the reports which have come to hand from the country districts, it appears likely that there will be a low average yield of grain. The season though dry has not however been a dry one of the woret sort. There has been a scanty supply of moisture, but the nor'-westers have been moderate, and the wheat crops on good laud can hold their own fairly woll with a small rain-fall, pre viding the ground is not parched by continuous dry winds. In some districts which lie near the hills the weather has been very favourable, there having been a sufficient number of showers for all kinds of vegetation. In the Oamaru district the drought has been so severe that many crops will not be worth harvesting, and stock are being turned into them. The laud near, the coast in South Canterbury has also suffered from want of rain, but not to the same extent as in the Oamaru district, and most of the land being of good quality the crops are likely to give a tolerably good yield. 'lhe light land of tho Plains is the fir«t to suffer from drought, but there is reason to hopo that the showers whioh have fallen this month oame in time to prevent anything like a failure. In dry seasons the oat-crop suffers most, partly on account of its being sown later than the wheat, and therefore has not time to beoome well established bofore dry weathor sets in, and partly because the nature of the oat pUnt is not so well adapted to stand drought as the wheat plant. The wheat plant has a double set of roots, by whioh it is enabled to draw nourishment both from the surface soil and the subsoil. As the pnoe of oats depends chiefly upon loeal production, there does not appear to be any great reason to fear a glutted market. The experience of 1880 has taught farmers a lesson, so that the area mown is more in aooordanoe with the probable demand, and as the yield is oorUin not to beheavy, there is reason to hope that prioos will be suoh as to leave a margin of profit to the grower. Late advioes from Melbourne are not encouraging, but the condition of the growing orep is mora substantial ground upon whioh to estimate future prioes than present fluctuations of the market. Prices equal to what were obtained a few yoats ago are soaroely to be looked for

•gain in the*, day. of improved implement. *nd machinery. Anything whioh tends to reduce the cotfc of production has alio a tendenoy to reduce pricei, and at a general thing farmers' profit, are not greatly affected. The proipeot. of the wheat market are decidedly good. After harvest buyer* will naturally keep price* down as low as po»lible, but farmer, are heooming bo fully awake to their own insterests that they are not likely to sell here unlets the prioo offered in somewhere near what there is a reasonable chanea of fitting by shipping whoafc Homo on their own account. Under the old system of | shipping through agents, farmers were heavily handicapped by exponses over and above what it coat a merchant to export grain, but the co-operative movemont has materially changed the aspect of things, and farmers have altogether •» better chance of making the moot of their produce. The price of wheat at Home has receded of late, but there is no doubt about the deficiency of the last English and American harvest ; and to that extent at least farmer, havo circumstances in their favour. There will be no heavy last season's stocks to contend with, and it is probable that nothing short of a bumper hurrest either in England or America, or both, would take effect enough to bring prices down to a very low point. In regard to tho coming harvest here, we may romark that dry summers have genorally been followed by harvest weather of much the same character; but the best advice we can give formers is to be prepared for any kind of weather. With the appliances that are bow available, farmers are not so much at the mercy of the elements as formerly, and are, in fact, tolerably safe except from an extremely wet or windy season, In most districts the weather has not been favourable for early sown turnips, and much ground will doubtless need to be re-sown. We hear also that the übiquitous fly has been very busy among the young turnip plants. Steeping the seed in turpentine is said to be a specific against the attacks of the fly. If any of our readers are in a position to furnish practical information on this point, we should be glad to hear from them, for any devioe that reduces the risk of turnip growing should certainly be made as public as possible. While on this subject we may remark that experienced turnip growers would confer a groat benefit upon a great number of farmers by furnishing information through our agricultural columns, as to the comparative value and characteristics of the various sorts of turnips. There are always new men coming into the country, and turnip growing is alee a new thing to mar.j farmers who have been in the place a long time. The permanency and well-being of our agrioulture depend, greatly upon the proportion of the stock kept on the land to the grain production, and any farmer who takes a patriotio interest in the welfare of the country should not be too diffident in making his experience public. The lesions of experience are among those things which may be imparted to others without making a man any the poorer. Those who have been farming in the country a long time do not fully realise the difficulties that beginners labour under, and many things which appear selfevident have been learnt, though perhaps in some measure unconsciously, by a long course of observation.