SEASONABLE HINTS.

Patea Mail, Volume IV, Issue 329, 12 June 1878, Page 4

SEASONABLE HINTS.

[ From the Canterbury 'Times.'] We arc now well advanced into another seed time, and ere this every farmer should be well forward with the ploughing for autumn wheat; and the more of it he has already sown the greater willhis profits be iu the coming year. A ynsty -mould-board now will very likely mean rusty straw at harvest. Long experience has proved that early crops yield most iu quantity and best in quality. This may be an old and accepted truism, still it will bear repeating many tipics. After the hard work of harvest and threshing there is gioat inducement, to take a spell before yokingto again, but the only time a, farmer can safely indulge in a holiday is when his grain is growing ; every day lost al this rime of tiie year will tail its tale at harvest time. In anything like retentive soils it. is of the greatest consequence to get the wheat sown before the ground becomes sodden and cold, say before the middle of June, for after that Urn chances arc that a great deal of the seed will rot before the ground becomes warm enough to produce germination. The difference between sowing in May and in. July In.f-v perhaps, never been more clearly proved than in the past season, the former in many cases yielding twice as much as the latter. Nine times out often, where wheat cannot be .'-■ own in proper .season, it ml] bo found more profitable to let the land stand over lor a spring crop. There is one tiling in particular of winch many farmers are von - negligent, and that is making farrows to take off stagnant water from their wheat fields. There are not many' paddocks-but require it mm e or less, and there is no work in the vml that a man can err;; belter wages m u.;t!i in doing" this. Wherever water l'i or the ground is very sodden, the v heat cannot thrive, ami if the latter is not Jailed altogether it will be thin and Muntcd, and wiii not ripen with the rest of the iield. In patches of any size. where the surface water cannot be /rot oil, it is not a bad plan to sow some spring wheat, taking cave not to save any of the mixed grain for seed the following year. Scarcity of rain in the autumn has not been so Severely Alt tor many years, both by grain growers and gra/.iors, and the late change in the weather, though long iu coming, has been most welcome, but we fear ihe benefit to the pastures wi.’i not be very material, .Any grass that grows alter tins will be very soft and apt. in scour, and iuJ;y is the man who has a good crop of sunups for Ids sheen, am! has been wise enough to .slack his straw lor his calllc, for hj will be wanted before we see beptember through. Those intending to break up dry ground for' wheat Lave boon entirely non-phissed by the dry weather, and we fail to see how this description of laud can now be sown to winter wheat with much chance of success. On the other hand, cross ploughing has not been much hindered, as in the driest weather there, is more or less moisture under the furrow. Vve would suggest ior the management of dry laud which has to be ploughed alter, cay May, til at a skim coulter should be used to turn iu the grass edge of the furrow, fur the grass wiil grow considerably even in lice winter, when llte ground is fresh moved, and it lies in the shelter of the furrow. We would also suggest that it be left iu this state iiii the spring, then harrowed well, and spring wheat drilled iu. Tliis plan would be more profitable than sowing winter wheat late on a new furrow, it is satisfactory to know that our farmers are becoming- .more alive to the fact every year that winter wheat requires a part of two seasons tc bring it to maturity, and we believe a large Breadth of wheat was well harrowed in, before the lute fall ot rain. This should got a good start, and no doubt will give a good account of itscll at harvest time.