SOUTHLAND AGRICULTURAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2815, 26 February 1908, Page 8

SOUTHLAND AGRICULTURAL NOTES.

(Tnon Obh Own Oob«espowdsht » Good progress is being made, with tlie harvest work. In the The earlier localities reaping is Warrest. so far advanced that the

threshing machines had to be taken info the oat paddocks before the

threshing of the ryegrass orop was com* pleted. Reaping is far advanced in th» later localities also, and stapking will soon be general everywhere. Very few men have been seen looking for work, but *3L the farmers have become accustomed toi the altered labour conditions they are notS seriously inconvenienced by the scarcity, of labour. They don't grow 6O much, and; they have sheaf carriers on the hinders, by means of which the labour of stooking is reduced from 25 to 50 per cent. Harveeb work now proceeds almost as smootnly and uninterruptedly as ploughing, co perfecf, strong, and simple 16 the construction of the binders. It js noticeable that a considerable number of samples of oats are not pure, that is to 6ay that they comprise mixed varieties, which is owing to the practice of growing a few varieties on the same farm. However excellent two or three varieties may be it is obvious tha6 they should not be mixed. Efforts should therefore be made in harvest time to keep separate for seed any portion of the orop that may be of one variety only. The earliest portion of the crop is U6ually the best for chaff, as rust is more likely to appear in the latest portion of the crop to ripen, whether the season is an early or late one. A 45-bushel crop weighs about two tons per aero.

Grass seeds sown with a crop last eprlng have not produced much Pafttare herbage, but we may ex«»d peot to see a. rapid 1 growtH Gree* Crops, after the cutting of tho crop in consequence of ihe genial rains, exceeding 2in, ■which have. fallen sinco the beginning of the month*, combined with the considerable degree o£ warmth which has uniformly prevailed I.'1 .' Grass seeds sovin alone or with turnips on. rape have done well on most good soil?. Lambs do not usually fatten satisfactorily^ on young pasture alone: they need turnips, rape, rye, or oats in addition. Where both turnips and rape are grown with grass it is customary to put the lambs for two or three weeks on the former, and afterwards on the rape, as the turnips ripen later. During the second week lambs beginf to acquire a taste for turnips, and it is time to remove them by the end of the third week if the turnips are not readyThe turnips grow very well afterwards, because grass and weeds have been eaten down. The turnips on raised drills have been growing rapidly during the month, but it is too coon to predict whether tho crop will be heavy or light in all places where the seed was sown late. Wherever the seed was sown very thinly to 6ave tho cost of hand-hoeing the turnips were of much slower growth. In Britein a much larger quantity of seed is sown than is the case here, but I cannot accept the fol-io-wing statement in M'Connell's Agricultural Note Book as a fact:— " Quantity of seed per acre — swedes, 31b to 41b: soffa \arietic«, 41b to 61b, 21b to 41b when broadcasted."' Here, before the introduction of the combined double ridgers, it was the practice to sow from 16oz to 240z on the raised drill, 26in apart. But now many sow from 4oz to lOoz, and usually with good results, where the depredations of birds or insects, are not serious. During the lasfc two years I sowed Boz per acre, and thft cost of singling was less than a third what it used to be. This season I sowed quantities of 4oz, 6oz, and Boz reapecciv^ly, with good results, and I intend in future to> sow 6oz, so that no hand-hoeing will ba required. It is important, however, to have a very good tilth, but this can be obtained by ploughing stubble land with the diggerplough about 7in deep, where there is a. deep soil, early in winter, and carrying oufc subsequent tillage operations in spring and summer until the time for sowing arrive?By this means many weeds are killed, arid others kept under" the surface until the turnips get a good start. Some farmers would have had better results this season if they had ijiade two operations of lha ridging and the turnip-sowing, as turnitt seed does not succeed well if the soil i« so damp that it sticks to the rollers. Br tho romova.l of two bolts, the rear part of the ridgers can be separated from the fore part, and thus the seed may be sown some hours, or a day or two, after the ridging--Turnips always do better when they are Eown on a surface that is so dry that nono of the soil sticks to the rollers, but in the average season turnips could not r e sown

fct all if one waited for such a favourabb Condition of soil.

Buyers of fat lambs are complaining that the percentage of fat is Fat smaller than last season, Lanbß. and this is a circumstance which they attribute to She dryness of the pasture and scarcity of water and milk. They say that many of the ewes dried off by the end of January, and that this never occurred before so early in the season. Store lambs are going up in price since the rains fell — there has been a heavy rainfall thje month, no less than 3in so far, — and it is asserted that the demand cannot be supplied. From 12s to 13s 6d net is being paid for fat Jamba on the farms, but there i 6 an impression that buyers will coon have to give more on account of the faot that good 6tores are now bringing a price not far shoi-t of the figures mentioned as ruling for fats.