THE HARVEST.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 5, Issue 1294, 3 February 1883, Page 2

THE HARVEST.

\ Gontiniud,) ... [By our Special .Reporter.] iifipaljsing from TeiOre.Ore to Opaki, liforgot to mention the extensive crops of Hospital. There,'are about 200 acres of oats, and 70 acres of wheat. The whole-was-standing-when-rßav itj. so am unable to speak with confidence of •it.. - The-; whole-. appears to be a lair oi'op, and will thresh out well, but the oats are rather light, although there are patches very heavily grown.. ; On leaving Welch and Campbell, I took a look at Mr T. Brown's crop. He has only a small patch this year of about 30 acres of wheat and oats. The former shew'up very well, but, the latter, on account of late sowing, are very light, Adjoining this is a splendid lot of wheat and oats belonging ,to Mr Martin. The former is stacked, and is a'; first-class sample; the same can be said of the latter ;jwhich' is still 'standing., I did not cross the river, but could see that Mr McLachlan was the only one there that went in for orop-. ping to any extent. I was, informed that he had about 40 acres, principally oats, and as the richness of the soil along the said river banks, is so wellknown, there is no doubt he will be able to shew good returns. ■. After going up the cutting and rilonj : ; tljp atony terrace, I- was very much sur-' prised to find so many nice farms at the Upper Opaki, and such a large quantity, of land , under' cultivation, Nearly the whole of the settlers have' got a patch of corn of some kind,, but as uone of them .have gone in very extensively I will net particularise, as it:would occupy too much space, .'/ Mr James Welch has the largest crop there,' having between 30 and 40 acres, principally oa^. : These,'on account Of late sowing, are rather thin, but have well-filled heads. There were several patolies of wheat along the' roadside, the appearance of which was very promising. I retraced my steps to Mr M. McKenzie's, who had jußt finished catting. About 80 acres were under crop, 60, being oats,. the remainder wheat and barley. The stooks were few and far between, so I judged he had had rather a light crop; the quality of the grain could not be found fault with, as the ears were t pretty full. Crossing towards the j bush, I came to Captain Homewood's , farm. Here were two reapers and • string binders in full swing, one at the I wheat and the other at the oats, Of the latter there is about 20 acres, but, 1 like the majority,'light, with a good | show of corn. There is about 70 acres j of the former, and. a first-class crop too [ —one that is likely to go above 30 i bushels to:the acre. I was informed 1 by one of the harvesters that it had a | far better appearance than last year's | corn, A little beyond Captain Home- ! woods I noticed two very nice patches, , one of 30 acres belonging to Mr ■ McPhee,'and the other of 20' acres i owned by Mr Baker; it was principally ' wheat, and up to the usual standard. 1 The last place I called at on the Op<.ki was Mr Rummer's, on the banks of the Waipoua, close to the bridge, His crop of 38 acres (half wheat and half oats) was all snugly stacked. He , thinks they are quite up to last year's quality, only the straw, is rather i shorter. On the opposite side of the • road I saw about 20 acres of rather light oats belonging to Mr Jas, Macara, . which was just being operated upon by a side-deliverer. 1 had heard about the Akura block (Bannister Bros.') growing some splendid crops; and of course was rather anxious to ascertain if it had been over-rated or not. On crossing the bridge I had a good view of them, and must confess they are equal to anything. I anticipated seeing. Everything was at work here, cutting, tying, stooking, and; staging, nobody was idle.. Oiitof 140 acres 120 were cropped with wheat, find a splendid crop too. Last years' average was 32 to the acre, if this does not exceed that a, great many will be out of their reckoning, for it is exceptionally heavy. Even here it varies vfliy much in growth, as an instance, five stacks were made from stooks gathered within an area of about 24 acres. A short distance from this the growth of the same area only made two staoks. The 20 acres of oats "(black) are a grand lot, with an enormous length of straw, and as : they were being cut by a side deliverer the tyers-up heaped anything but blessings on the long stems. These oats are confidently, expected to yield between 60 and 70 to the acre, an expectation that I think is justified, if appearance is any criterion. The whole of the corn was to have been stacked this week, weather permitting, a feat, according to my judgment, that would require some long days to be made by the harvesters. The Bannister Bros had also about 20 acres of oats on the Opaki, but they wero not any thing like the quality, of the Akura ones, being very light.. Mr E. Chamberlains' ] crops were nearly, all. cut and stacked, , a job that would be finished this week if the weather kept fine. Out of 100 ; acres between 60 and 70 were in wheat, a crop that was equal to last year's, and one that will average well,. His 20 acres of oats were ajso yery gpod, but the 15 of barley was light. . Mr G. Chamberlain expected to get'his 120 acres of wheat cut this week, also 40 of oats; the latter will compare favorably with - last year's crop, and run . about forty to the acre. The wheat is light and calculated not to go above 25. I was unable to get a correct return of Mr T. Chamberlains' lot, but should imagine there were .abput 20, acres of 'it,;-all wheat, which had'a very'good appearance, MrHessey has a mixed crop : of about 90 acres, 40 of this is .wheat, of a good quality,;: .It .looks better than last year's - .grain, .and. expected to return about 35 to the acre. In the front paddocks he had some very good crops of peas and bar%,. the former were grown expresdy for splitting, and intended for the Wellington market. His crop of ,pite Tftt&rton cuts arp a splendid ilotj'.and. although they, will reach 60;buBlieis,to the aor|';' will fall short Mr Hessey was

! cariying out the plan of. thrashing from the stook. This is a plan that commends itself, and ought- to be carried out whenever it is practicable, as it not only tends to push forward the harvest operations, but is more economical, as the crops are only handled once, whereas, if It is stacked first a deal of the grain is shaken out and consequently wasted. (To be continued.)