THE APPROACHING HARVEST.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIX, Issue 3193, 10 December 1892, Page 2

THE APPROACHING HARVEST.

A wet spring is proverbially a good one for farmers, but there is such a thing as having too much of it, and this remark may be applied to the present season. Rain has fallen alim>3t every day for a considerable time past, and farmers are beginning to wonder when the weather really means to settle down tine. Tho hay season is now at hand, when clear breezy days will be needed, if crops are to be saved in anything like good condition. We hear that several paddocks of gra3s have already been cut in tho Waikato, and down country large areas are in hand. The hay crop, as might be expected, will be heavy, but it is hard to see how good hay can be made in such weather as we have lataly been experiencing. Probably a good deal of rank growth will bo made into silage for which purpose many of the heavy and badly laid cr< p, particularly of oats, is really only fit for. Fears are also expressed that a continuance of such damp muggy weather will cause rust in the grain crops, many of which are now out in full ear. These are aiready far too strong to promise a large grain yield, and anything like a wide spread attack of rust would cause heavy loss amongst our grain-growers. Let us hope that summer will commence shortly in reality. In the meantime, we may remind our farming friends, that much loss and disappointment is often ayiidable by having everything in readiness for harvest, at which time the ripe crops, whether ot hay or grain, require to be handled with rapidity and despatch.