Farm Notes.

Manawatu Herald, 14 December 1897, Page 3

Farm Notes.

The hay harvest in the Canterbury district, is practically a failure. Truth's Titnaru correspondent writes : —The first wool sale of the season was held here yesterday, and as there was a very large attendance of farmers from all over South Canterbury I took advantage of the opportunity to 1^76 a chat with them on crop prospects generally. I mot farmew from as far south as Waimate, Ofaio, St. Andrews, and Fareora, and north to the Bangitata, Geraldine, Temuka, Winchesier, Lower Milfort and Seadown, and their united opinion, given in more or leas doleful tone, wa3 •' that the outlook is very seriou3. " Right through the whole district the crops are " very bad, " and one farmer, who has exceptional facilities for judging, and has bsen in this dis trict for twenty five years, saya that he never saw anything to equal the backward condition of all the crops. Asked if the rains which lately fell had not done good, one farmer from Otaio, another from Pareora, and a third from Milfort said "No; the severe winds which followed undid all the $ood which might have followed." The crops are no height and in ear, which generally are half filled, and badly so at that. There is just a hope, but at present it appears to be a forlon hope, that with a good soaking rain within the noxt seven days, the crops will be to a great extent saved, but there is really no prospect of a good harvest. One farmer estimates that the yield all over South Canterbury will not average twelve bushels per acre. I here are some very fair crops in the Winchester and Milfert districts, and about the Waitobi, but nothing like what has bean soen in many jireviously experienced fairy dry

seasons

An A fell burton correspondent writes: - The prevale cc of dry ecorcbins winds find the absence of

anything like sufficient rain to reach tbe subsoil is having a very serious effect on the cereals on the Ash-

burton plain', and it is feared thah considerable areas of both wheat and oats will no; be worth reaping. In many parts of the Wakanui and Seafield districts the prospects are most discouraging, and some of the farmers have already turned stock in to feed off the orop. There will, of course, be s >me fairly good yields but genera' ly spewing the average will be a long way below that of many previous seasons. More rain has fallen in the upper parts of the district, and conse quently the crops are lookiug much more promising