DRY WEATHER IN AUCKLAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 2810, 22 January 1908, Page 23

DRY WEATHER IN AUCKLAND.

(From Oub Own Correspondent.) AUCKLAND, January 20. The dry period which has set in is now affecting the pastures to some extent, and on the high lands grass has been so dried that dairy cows are giving less milk. Tkie has baen noted iri the Waiuku district in. particular, but all over the province the effects of the dry weather was becoming more or less noticeable, while in some of the districts the caterpillar pest is commencing to make itself , felt. Naturally the drying up of grass pastures will mean a decrease in the butter outputs, but several agriculturists who were in town yesterday and were approached for information say that' so far the situation ha 6 not taken on a very serious aspect, and the , country can still stand a fairly long period without rain. One prominent farmer said that in Auckland a really dry season was sometimes a blessing in disguise, because the drying up of the soil gave the grass a lest. In a year when there was no lengthened dry period the vegetation got no rest whatever, the climate- being so mild that growth eontirtued all the winter <o a certain extent, whereas in the southeVia parts of New Zealand the frosts. of winter gave the 6oil the needed period of inactivity.