South Canterbury Times, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1882.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2768, 6 February 1882, Page 2

South Canterbury Times, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1882.

“ Discontent- and progress . go together,” says some modern Solomon. There is groumd enough for discontent with the present appliances for the saving of rij je and ripening crops in the face of the nor-westers which are so often destructive to a farmer’s hopes of a fair return for his year’s work. Machine binders are very jjood as far

as they go, they lessen the cost of •ityingi' but;': theyhave little’.advantage 1 over the sClf-delivery .reaper as a radons, of a-crop from “ the wind that, shakes! the barley.’’ We are indebtedto American; ingenuity for them we are inclined to think that if the American farmers were liable to suffer such losses as ours do nearly every year from hot and violent winds they would before now have been supplied with a machine capable of getting over the ground at a rapid rate, and placing a crop in safety.as far as shaking by winds, is concerned. Three, four and five bushels per. acre shaken out of a crop make a considerable difference in the:profits, inasmuch as they represent a total loss, the expense of growing and harvesting the rest being not in. the least curtailed. Ther®? is ihere ah opening for the exercise of a high degree of mechanical- ingenuity, iq inventing a method of harvesting that will make the farmer j to some extent fearless of the nor’westers, and possibly also of ( wet, the contrary kind of weather. At present in the most advanced method of harvesting, nearly the same processes are gone through as were common a thousand years ago, the chief: difference being that machinerytakes the place of human hands, and horse-power of human muscles, in;the, cutting of the straw, and the gathering and tying of the sheaf. The rest of the work of harvest is as old as the hills. There is the same stocking, and pitchforking, and loading, second pitching and the stacking, another pitching; andean undoing of the binder’s work for thrashing—a great deal of labor bestowed chiefly upon the straw, a not very valuable substance. The self-binding reaper is a great improvement upon the old system of harvesting, and has now been brought to such perfection; that no very great advance in this direction is to be looked for .. But it only deals with one part of the work of the harvest—the heaviest part no doubt —but it is yet too slow. We do not profess to foresee how it will ;be done,but we thoroughly, believe that an entirely new departure in methods of harvesting is required and will presently jbe taken, one that will simplify the work done, and enable the grain grower ’to secure a : large 1 breadth of crop while the nor’-wester is creeping up the western, slopes of the Southern Alps. While our agriculturists are waiting’ for this new system, however, (apd they may have to wait a long time for, it) there is one direction from which some assistance might be obtained at once; That is the weather exchange service recently established between New '■> Zealand and Australia; which should be supplemented by a very minute signal service throughout this colony, and at the critical seasons of the year the services should be specially worked in the interests- Of farmers. At present the Meteorological .Department of New Zealand is managed almost entirely in the interests of' mariners. Taking the whole year: round' no doubt it is Of most importance to them, but at harvest time, weather warnings would be still more valuable to farmers. Twenty-four hours notice of the, approach; of a nor’-wester would save heaps of the grain that is now almost yearly knocked o.ut by gales, and if it be possible to obtain such notice —and we understand that it is, or even a longey notice—the farmers on; this coast should take steps to obtain it. It would pay them well to pay well for it.