THE Temuka Leader. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1892. THE HARVEST.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2317, 11 February 1892, Page 2

THE Temuka Leader. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1892. THE HARVEST.

Whatever hope we may entertain of being able to produce rain when required, it does not appear to us that there is any prospects of ever being able to prevent it falling when it is ready to do so. Men of science have done a great deal for the world, and doubtless they will do a great deal more but it is very unlikely that they will ever obtain such control over the elements as will enable them to command the weather to " dry up " when :they think fit. That being so the farmer will, we believe, have to grapple with the question in the future, as in the past. A great deal has been done by human ingenuity

for the farmer. Wonderful contrivances mow down and thresh his crops with extraordinary rapidity; his grain is carried by sea and land to any port of tjje world in a marvellously short space of time, whilst at the same time he is kept daily informed of the prices obtainable in the most distant parts of the earth. The farmer of the present day has a wonderful advantage over the farmer of a few years ago, but in the matter of weather his risks remain the same. Indeed the farmer of the present time seems to us to make the risk greater, because he trusts more to the weather than his father would have done. The farmer of the past never dreamt of such a thing as threshing out of the stooks, but lately this has become a common thing. Several times during the past year we warned farmers of the danger of doing this, and we regret to say they have not paid much attention to us. The rain of the past week will no doubt teach some of them a lesson. There are many about the district who could have stacked their grain before the rain set in if they had gone to work as they ought, and now they doubtless regret they did not do so. Still though that is the case, in some instances it must be said that the great majority of farmers are not in any way to blame this year. They certainly could not have helped it; as the rain came exactly at the very worst moment it could possibly have chosen, and in the great majority of cases the crops were not ready for stacking. Hud the weather remained dry for even a week longer the greater part of the harvest would have been saved, but now, painful as it is to say it, we cannot hide from ourselves the fact that the amount of damage done is incalculable. This is the more annoying because the hopes of the country this year were high. Farmers saw before them splendid crops, with promises of high prices, but now these bright prospects have given place to damaged grain, and a falling market. We do heartily sympathise with the farmers ; they have not had such bright prospects for years, and it is very hard on them to be obliged to look on helplessly, while the result of their year's labor is melting before their eyes. The prospects at the present time are not bright, but let us hope that we have now reached the end of the rain, and that the damage will not be so great as it is anticipated. The best thing to be done now is, weather permitting, to let the crops dry in the stook thoroughly, then stack it, and let it remain in the stack for two or three months. By doing this the grain would harden, and the probabilities are the greater part part of the damaged wheat would be blown away by the blast in going through the thrashing mill. If this is done we have hopes the that damage will not be so great as anticipated, while of the same time there are chances at the market improving later on in the season. It is most unfortunate that the weather broke in such an undesirable time; it is not only the farmers who will suffer, but the whole country; it will do a hundred times more damage than the cry about frightened capital, but there is no help for it. We cannot help it, and there is nothing for it but bear it as cheerfully as we can.