FALSE OUT.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 1068, 8 October 1883, Page 2

FALSE OUT.

To the Editor.

Sir, —I regret the tone which Mr Walker has seen fit to adopt towards mo in his letter of last night. I am not aware of anything in mine'which would warrant him in so doing. I rather think he ought to thank me for giving him the opportunity (why did he not embrace it ?) of showing wherein the new sort of ploughing was better than the old. I must say here that if Mr Walker will discuss the matter in a fair and friendly spirit, I will be prepared to answer him, but otherwise I shall take no further notice of anything he may write. In answer to the first paragraph of his letter I must repeat “ two inches to land of his share.” I did not measure it, but I ain open to lay a small wager that it was nearer two than any other number that can be named. In support of this, I quote the following from a letter which appeared in the Canterbury Times of August last. The writer was giving a Canterbury man’s experiences at a South Otago ploughing match, where this kind of work is all the go. “ There was a surprising amount of false cut indulged in; talk not of false cut. O ye Canterbury farmers, till you have seen an Otago match. Canterbury in the palmiest days of ploughing matches, when high out was the rule and not the exception, never equalled this; the plough irons were all set in one peculiar fashion. . . . The coulters, all with flat shafts, were set well forward, but perfectly straight, the blade being shaped like a butcher’s knife, with the point curved back, it was raised from the share and set wide on the land aide, leaving fully three inches of the furrow to be torn off.” I think that Mr Walker’s assertion that he knows that every part of the colony with the exception of Canterbury will have nothing else but false cut is, to say the least of it, open to doubt. It does act follow that because Mr Walker has made ploughs for all the parts of New Zealand that his are the only wake used out of Canterbury. I don’t think the statistics he mentions will help hie cause much, but if there is anything in them why has Mr Walker not mentioned it sooner? Any process of ploughing or harrowing, or both combined, whereby we nn increase our average yield, not to 45 but to 30 bushels, will I am sure be eagerly jumped at by our farmers large and small. The next paragraph is soon answered. If Mr Walker will turn to page 8 of a certain catalogue of implements he will find the followingi—“ Our improved single-furrow general purpose plough will turn a plain flat furrow, or by substituting a different share and coulter will make a crested or light cut furrow, so much prized for lea ploughing or ploughing match work.” The next paragraph requires no answer further than I should like to know that champion’s name. The following is a little mixed. 1 alse have seen a few would-bo champions, mostly of the ignorant sort, who despised such things as skim coulters etc., depending on their own science, which tells them that , a sheep’s head with a stick in the “ ee o’t ” if only they were behind it was bojmd to take first honors. I may say I consider skim coulters and grass Jcnives. a alight advantage, and therefore I think they should be prohibited at ploughing matches. In conclusion, lam surprised to learn that Mr Walker considers it a heinous sin to write an anonymous letter, i

—I am, etc., Ashburton, Oct, 5,

PIOUGHBOY.