HARVEST PROSPECTS.

Patea Mail, 19 January 1882, Page 4

HARVEST PROSPECTS.

VICTORIA. Speaking of the harvest in Yic'oria, t|ie Melbourne Leader says :—As ihe wheat harvest progresses the results do not give cause for very sanguine expectations with respect to the average yield, but the quality of the sample is likely to be up to a fair average. In the southern districts the crops promise heavy yields, but the farmers are becoming uneasy in places owing to the heavy rains. SOUTH AUSTRALIA. Harvest is now general in South Australia, and the new wheat has already commenced to arrive in Adelaide. The sample,generally speaking,is good, though some of the ci;ops on the older lands atre spoken of as very dicky.” CANTERBURY, N.Z. The Times says—Farmers’ prospects for the coming harvest, which had begun to assume a Very unpleasant aspect, were materially brightened by heavy rain from the south-west on the 7th and Bth. It is impossible to over-estimate the value of this rain ta the farmers. The early sown crops are in most districts too far advanced to be greatly affected, but they will derive some benefit from the moisture, and from the unwelcome rate at which they were ripening off being checked. On the late crops the rain will have great effect, converting what promised to be a light yield into at least a good average harvest. Root crops of all kinds, together with pastures—which had begun to look very bare —will derive* considerable advantage from the rain, while it has come just in the nick of time for turnip sowing. Altogether farmers are large gainers, and with favorable weather for the next two or three months the general results of the year’s work should be of a satisfactory character.

There is no better way of restoring soil than by growing and ploughing under clover. The difficulty is in inducing the clover to grow upon soils so poor as to need this method of improvement. But when the soil is in fair condition, if this practice is begun and continued it will then keep it improving without difficulty.