Agricultural Notes.

Manawatu Herald, 8 March 1898, Page 3

Agricultural Notes.

The largest flower in the world grows in Sumatra. Some of the specimens are 89in in diameter. A giant onion wa3 grown at. Pdtutahi, near Gisborne, recently. I It measured 21in in eircumferance, | and weighed 8 b. Threshing ia in full swing in the Sansou district. Mr W. Brookie who has a large amount of the ' threshing to do for that district.! informs us that be baa already put . through his machine 20,000 bushels. | Duriug last wet-k for five days and three-quarters ha ihreshf/d out 6500 ; bushels. Mr Brookie also informed U3 that sj far the yield in that dis- \ trict represents for wheat 30 and oats 40 bushels, to the acre. — Advocate, Owing to the long continued dry weather feed ia very scarce in the Oumaru and Hampdtn districts, and | cattle are in constq lence Using sold . at exceedingly low prices. Quite recently in Hanipden, ewes were disposed of at Is per bead, and ,at an auction sale in Oamaru a few weeks ago half a dozen cow 3 and two calves were offered in one lot and knocked down at £2. If there is not a plentiful supply of rain shortly (says the Mail) to bring on the turnip crop 3it -is feared that the stock will also faro very badly in both the above-mentioned districts during the winter months. Blackberry picking, which during the past two or three yeara has become an important and profitable occupation, is now in full swing in the Takaka Valley, Nelson. One day's consignment to Messrs Kirkpatrick and Co, filled 60 cask 3. Some of the familes eugaged in picking the berrias are' said to bo making £1 10<, and upwards a day. About 16,000 bushels of wheat have been threshed this season in South Wairarapa, The average yield is estimated at nearly 80 bushels to the acre. Oats have given good results, hut havo been mostly cut into chaff. Some of the crops in the Seadown district are, say 3 the Timaru Herald giving very small returns. One crop threshed as low as 2£ bushels to the nci£ ; another fifty acres yielded bushels ; a two hundred acre block is estimated to return 4 bushels, and several other crops are nearly as bad. On the beach side of the railway there are some good crop 3. In one case as high as 80 bushels of oats to the acre ; in another 50 bushels of wheat. An immense amount of grain was shaken out by the nor'westers ; in come crop 3 fully half waalosfc. ■