LOCAL A. AND P. NEWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2811, 29 January 1908, Page 20

LOCAL A. AND P. NEWS.

During the gale on Wednesday night last some stooks of grass were blown clean out of "a field on the Taieri, whilst in other instances sheaves ready for stooking were stripped clean. It is estimated that the" cereal crop has been damaged to the ex,tent of 50 per cent, and^ the fruit prop by 30 per cent. ,

For the year ended March 31, 1907, the Lake "County Council expended £138 4s lid or» the destruction of small birds. I The recent rains have improved the grass and cereal crops on the Waimea Plains tremendously The turnip, grass, and rape crops along the base of the hills have been favoured with more moisture than the flat, and the effect is very marked in places. On the- Fairplace Estate, near Riversdaie, there is an area of 150 acres of rape, turj nips, and grass that ivould be hard to beat j anj-Ayhero in Southland. The paddock has carried 2000 lambs since New Year, and i the feed is stii] so plentiful that Mr Win- ' gate, the manager, intends to put another 1000 on shortly. Harvesting operations (says the News) , hav9 commenced in some parts of the j Southland district, and at Wyndham and Dipton, according to a recent visitor to those localities, there are farmers who have completed the work. It is expected that cutting will be general throughout the whole of the district in less than a fortnight's time — that la, ii the weather between now and then is favourable, and up to the present there has beeE no cause to complain on this score. One of the best crops is stated to lpe on an area at "Eden dale, from- which it Is that 70 to 80 bushels to the acre will be obtained, while another at Longbush will probably yield about 70 bushels' to- the acre. Our informant, tfbo has been engaged in farming pursuits for. many years, states that the oats have not come away fchis year in the same way as in some former seasons,- and adds thaj; the land which is expected' to furnish from 70 to 80 bushels has in the pas t t produced over 100 bushels. The atraw is inclined to be short, too, so the yieid of chaff per acre will not come up tc that of some other years. There is no doubt aa to what the quality of the oats will bejU the climatic- conditions have beoa all

that could have been desired, and, takoi on the whole, growers have every reasoi to congratulate themselves. Writing on Wednesday last the Edendal< correspondent of the Mataura Ensign re ports . — Owing to the refreshing rain which fell recently, the crops throughou the district are thriving splendidly. Somi turnips in a paddock adjoining the town ship, belonging to Mr J. Muir, are so fa; advanced that they are now meeting in thi drills. The harvest, which has begun ii the Ota Creek district, will soon be genera right- along- the plain. — Two 20-acre leasa bold sections in ilie "Village Settlement havi just been disposed of. The one belonging to Mr Herman August was taken over b; Mr Ale*. Oompton, late of Mataura Island the other, belonging to Mr Georg© Demp ster, found a purchaser in Mr Oberg, o Livingston, near Oamaru. The purchasi price in both cases was, we understand £4-80 or thereby. The continuance of th dry weather is telling upon the milk suppl; to the local factory- , Until to-day 11 vat have been in use, receiving a daily suppi; of nearly 8000 gal. Ten are now sufficien for the 6400 gal which are dealt with to-day Half a dozen _of MacEwan's patent mill and curd agitators, driven by machinery have been installed this season, and havi somewhat lessened the manual labour in volved in the making of cheese. Farmer j in the surrounding and ourlyinj districts (says the Clutha Free Press) hay suffered considerably as a result of the re cent gales. In some places acres of graii were levelled to the ground, the stalk having been broken by the wind, and a other spots the oars merely were_ brokei off or bent over. The grass, which wa almost ready for threshing, also sufferei considerably. Quantities of seed weri blown from the ears and carried by th wind into adjoining paddocks or heapei up in ihc gullies and ditches. At the ne\ settlement of Blackburn, Pukepito, th settlers are considering whether it will pa; to cut their oats. They were sufferers b; the drought of 'ast season, and the outlool for them is serious. We (Southland News) understand tha nearly 100 cows «re now being milked oi Mr J L. Gilkison's farm, Pine Bush, b. means of Lawrence-Kennedy milking ma chines, four of which have been installed The plant and dairy are probably the mos up-to-date in the Dominion, and the result achieved prove that the days of hand-milk ing in the dairying industry are numbered The innovation has proved successful be yond anticipations. Several visitors from the Western district were most favourabl; impressed, and Ihe result of their inspec tion will probably be the introduction o the milking machine into that part of South land. A travelling correspondent of the Wynd ham Herald writes: Many surprises awai the pei son who tor €he first time travel through a. new district. The Waikaia dis trict furnishes an "eye-opener" in this re spect. To the majority of the outsitl public, Waikata does not appear to .be i place in which they would desire to liv in. They think of it aa a rough, primitive sort of village up among thf^ hills; a dis trict of almost perpetual rain, frost, ani snow, ana hence mucb discomfort: This i altogether an erroneous impression, -as an; person who takes a tour 12 miles up tb Waikaia Valley, above the township, wil soon find out/ There one finds a beautifu fertile valley, varying from half a mile ti a mile in width, with grass .in abundanco indeed, in the early spring better grass wa seen in that valley than in any other die trict from Gore upwards. Fine drilled tur nips are grown there in 70, 80, and 150 acr lots ; and the oats this year are, on th' whole, heavy, and inclined to lie down. M Tincknej, at the head of Waikaia Valley has an ideal run, partly plain and parti; hills, and with his 30,000 finely-woollei sheep (which usually reach top price) is ai example of what care and thrift can accom plish in the runholding line. ' Crops in the Waianiwa district (report! the correspondent of the Southland Times] do not look as if they will yield up tc the average this season on account of the long spell of dry weather. _ Turnips and rape crops are looking fairly well, bui grass is getting very parched an badlj needs rain. The following Waitahuna notes appeal in the Tuapeka Times of the 25th inst. : — Owing to the strong, dry, hot winds experienced lately the crops are coming in very fast, and if more rain does not come soon it is feared that a large portion of the grain will be light and badly filled. The welcome rain which fell about eight days ago helped the grain, grass, and turnip crops wonderfully, but again everything looks dry and parched. _ Harvesting has commenced in the Waitahuna district, Mr A. Rowe having started cutting on Monday last on a fine field of well-ripened oats.— There are some nice crops of .grass-seed here and there throughout the district which were nearly all cut. and tied up before the strong winds came, otherwise the rough weather during the last week would have knocked the seed nearly all out. On some farms the stooks have been knocked about a good deal, and in one or two instances large quantities of sheaves have blown together and piled up against the fences, which means that a good deal of the seed will have been threshed out and lost to the farmer. — The milk supply for the creamery, though falling short of the estimate, is being fairly well kept up. One of our commonage settlers had landed at the railway station a few days ago a consignment of eight fine-looking dairy cows, the milk from which is to be sent "to the oreamery. Sheep have ot late years been paying so well that dairying in some .parts has been quite neglected ; but_, should anything in the nature of a serious drop take place in sheep, the. farmers will turn their attention to securing a strain of good milch -sows.