Page 2 Advertisements Column 1

Southland Times, Issue 949, 11 May 1868, Page 2

In a letter addressed to the " Daily Times," the Hon Matthew Holmes supplies the following information with regard to the yield of his crops during the past season : — " My principal crop was ■wheat, the varieties sown being white Essex and Sheriff's bearded. The latter was introduced into the Province by me, having been directly purchased from Mr Sheriff, the eminent East Lothian agriculturist. The lowest average for fields of at least 50 acres in extent, was 37 bushels per acre, and the highest 51 bushels. These averages •would undoubtedly have been increased by 10 bushels an acre, but for the, unusually wet "weather which occurred a month before harvest. The highest average of oats — short Tartarian — was 58 bushels per acre. The season's crop has been iall safely housed and in store, and amounts to between 14,000 and 15,000 bushels. This gives. an average. yield for all the land under crop (wheat and oats) of 43£ bushels per acre, which would have been exceeded but for the unseasonable weather referred to. I may add, some of my tenants have had better crops than mine, and my crop was not the best in the district." A Northern contemporary writes : — " We are in:receipt of a sample of cigars grown and made in the Province of Auckland, at Papakura. There can be no doubt whatever, it remarks, as to the quality of the leaf, but being new, the cigars are apt to become soft in the smoking. This is a fault which, of course, a little age will remedy.