A FIVE AND A HALF ACRE FARM.

Clutha Leader, Volume I, Issue 22, 10 December 1874, Page 3

A FIVE AND A HALF ACRE FARM.

The owner — no farmer — at his wits' end x br a tenant, hawked this land about to be let or sold. Not a tenant or purchaser could be found. At last he offered it to me. For this piece of land in this condition I gave him 27 years' purchase on his retail rental, and the freehold was duly conveyed to me for that sum not quite eight years ago. Operations were commenced upon it. First it was thoroughly cleaned ; 95 loads of farm-yard manure were then placed upon it, and a good crop of early turnips obtained. These were fed off by a large flock of sheep, and wheat was planted. The wheat crop returned one half the purchase money, and the' country was fifty sacks of wheat the better for the change. Then followed, on another manuring, a good crop of swedes, again fed off by a number of sheep ; and then, in the following season, barley ; then old red clover for ,-tv/o years, and then wheat again. When this second crop of wheat Was sold, tbe remainder of the purchasemoney was returned. I have purposely omitted to account for the expense of cultivation, because the land, under the treatment it had now received, invited -me to take a second crop of barley in immediate succession, to the second crop of wheat. This barley, of excellent quality, is now in hand, and will probably cover the expenses/of cultivation. The land is now in good con-

dition) quite clean, and lies to be manured for a swede crop when the season shall come. Thus, within eight years the freehold is paid for, the expenses of cultivation defrayed, and the " little land " which, by retail cultivation, could v better " no one — -which no one would purchase and no one would occupy — has in eight years, by virtue of cleanliness, cattle-feeding) and farmyard manure, placed itself creditor to the people of England. The moral I draw from this experience is that, firstly) cereal soils only require cleanliness, cattle-feeding, and farm-yard manure to be greatly more productive than they usually are ; secondly, that as "these are the previous conditions of increased production, the means of complying with them must in some legitimate way be afforded to those who need, that they may the. better carry through for the safety of England, the business of agriculture ; and lastly, that those who desire the delivery of the bricks should not deny the loan of the straw. — Albert Williams, East Isley Halll— •• The Times.'