WHEAT GROWING IN WAIKATO

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1588, 18 June 1887, Page 3

WHEAT GROWING IN WAIKATO

(Correspondent "N.Z. herald.') Mr J. 0. Firth's offer haa awakened tbe dry bones ia many a Walkato homestead, and there will undoubtedly be a larger breadth of wheat sown ibis coming season (has wai ever sown m the district before, bnt not one fourth of what there should be. It is surprising that so many should still be foond to protest that vffaeat at 4i, when even from 20 to 35 bushels per acre may be relied upon, will not pay. The raasons given era twofold ; firstly, that they have to grow turnips as a preparation on mnoh of tbe land, the cost of which will not be recouped by the sale of the cattle fed upon them, and will,therefore, remain a charge against the wheat crop, Secondly, that after the wheat crop haa been taken off there is considerable expense m getting the land down into giaas, wh'.oh is also made a eetroff against the profit on the wheat. tfbV§ the answer to this is twofold also ; 1 fxitty, that those making these objcotlons do not farm their land; and secondly, that their dealings m cattle are not those of tbe farmer, bnt of tbe cattle jobber, On botr many farms m Waitato ie - there anything like a rotation of crops practised? Tbe common practice is i if wheat) or oats, or potatoes, Or chaff, or any other kind of pro* dnce, as the oase may be, is at a fair jprice aadlii, brisk demand m the autnmn. ' and winfer %n effort will be made m the next ■easojnf to plant or sow as many acres at possible of that particular kind of prodope, and the result is, m cine cases out ten, over production and disappointment. This troafd be avoided by farming on a »yitem. To adopt » rotation of crops ■lilted to hl« land would ensure to the ' farmer a maximum production of the Boil, and that whatever the most marketable crop of the season might be he would be m the rnnning. In most rotations, and there areas many systems of rotation as there are varieties of soil, wheat, on wheat-growing land, forms a large proportion Perhaps the most suitable rotation for the generality of lands m Waikato, which range from a sandy to a clayey loam, would be the four couree ■yatem of Norfolk or Lincolnshire, with perhaps tb« mocU&c&Uon of allowing the *' taede " to remain over two years instead of onlr one : —First year swedes fed off; second year, oats or barley sown with a mixture of clovers and ryegrass ; third year, the grass thus sown usually called . " seeds," and fourth year, this oloverlea ploughed m for winter wheat. Thus half the arable land will be m white crop •. every year, the feeding off of the swedes . or turnips m the first, and of the " seeds" la the third, or, if that crop be carried over two years, m tba fourth year, maintaining the fertility of the soeil. By this system the expense of gatting land into grass after the wheat crop, other than Ibp proportion of permanent meadow to bp fpnnfl op »{mo»t every fym, is not 1 eiperienped, ; * ._. - „