A MODEL FARM.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 984, 26 November 1910, Page 19

A MODEL FARM.

THE TRETHELLA HERO.

AN OBJECT LESSON IN FARMING.

: The 145-aere farm of, Mr. J.'Burt Vealo, of Woodville, is described as one of tho best models of .its kind in .tho Dominion. .It was taken up eight years ago by Mr. Veale, almost solely with the idea of 'showing to the farm world generally what could be done by industry, energy, and perseverance It is not, of course, to bo implied that tho holding of Mr. Veale stands alone as a type of farm industry, bccaußo there aro many such, but his example should afford an excellent illustration of the great results which may accrue from solid application.

Eight Years Ago and How. Eight years ago Mt. Veale's present farm was a wilderness, and although the original quality of the land was good, a considerable portion of tho ares was over-run with swamp and raupo. There wore no fences, no buildings, no land under the plough, and, altogether, its carrying capacity could not have been more than sixty-five or seventy head all the year round. And on one hundred and fifty acres —five acres more, by the way, than the present area I Mr. Veale went to work with a will. He began to build in July of. 1903, and presently had got on so well that he. entered the farm for tho Manawatu Dairy Farm Competition at the expressed desire of his friends, and was awarded second prize, four points behind tho winner. In 1905 he again entered for. the competition, and was easily first with 568 out of a possible 600 points, the .next prize-winner scoring 443'pointis. In their report, the judges (Messrs. J: A. Kinsella, J. A. Gilruth, and A. Crawford), stated that Mr. ,Neale deserved great coramenda--tion. ■ Hβ had spared no trouble, and practically no expense consistent with economy in improving his land, putting iu an up-to-date cowshed, laying on. tho' water, supply,.instituting a system.,of drainage, .and securing most . a'dvan-. tage from the drainage.by distributing, it over his land.;-. Considering' the fact that it'was only two.arid'a half, years since the farm had been taken.over, the number'; of ■'. improvements'. effected, and , the amount, of intelligent work shown, were* descrying, of the highest praise.. Thefarm presented every evidence of intelligence and care down to even the smaller details. A jnatter I deserving notice was the fact that a thorough set of, books were kept, which enabled him to'see how-, hie different sources of profit stood, and the relative profit of each individual cow. The com-' mittee wished to emphasise the great value of this procedure to our farmers. Such a system of management was an object-lesson to farmers '.all over the Domini6n, and anybody who could possibly do so was advised to visit this dairy farm and see things for themselves. ' . . . Area and carrying capacity. ; The property has been considerably improved since that report appeared some five years ago. It now comprises 145 acres } divided into. seventeen paddocks, and cropped as follows-.—Nine acres in - barley, 'and grassed down; three acres in mangolds; ■ four Bwede turnips not yet. sown; eight in oats; eight shut up for hay; six in plantations; three and a half in rape; half in carrots and potatoes; and tho remainder in grass, of which, twentythree acres were laid down in new pastures and the balance in original bush I pastures. '."'.' •.'.'. .. .-; .. ;'.'.. '.. : .

The carrying capaoity of'-'the :farm was as follows:—Milking fifty'cows, and carrying eixty head'of heifers (two years and yearlings); nine pedigree Jersey cows; nine pedigree Jersey heifers; two pedigree Jersey bulls; while., the remainder of the cows were high-grado Jerseys, and a few Holsteins. At prosent the cows were averaging close upon ten pounds of butter-fat per week. In addition to the foregoing stock, the farm carried seven horses, fifty or sixty pigs. Last winter it ran one hundred head of cattle, six horses, and forty pigs.; ... . ; Advantageous Gulling, Mr. Veale has been culling Mβ stock ever since he has been-on-the farm. The results .now,, as compared . with what they were eight years ago, .are shown by liis books, and speak ■ eloquently for themselves:—l9o2, £579 Bs. lid. from 100 cows j 1910, £510 18s. 9d. from .50 cows. ■ With by-products and Burplus' cattle raised these', latter figure returns are brought up another £482 Bs. 7d., and. ,£4O for sundries, or a total of £1033 ,7s. 4d. from 145 acres. •' The Trethella Herd, The head of Mr. Vealo's Jersey herd at the commencement was Blacksmith by, Bed Eibbon, out of Sweet Pea V. Then followed Monotone, out of the champion cow Silver Queen, by Matapo 11, after whioh came Trethella's Mag,not, by Duchess Magnet out of Waihine. The second bull at present in use is Trethella's. Wild by the imported bull "Wild 1 out of, Lady Ida, tho cow-recently purchased from Mr...-' C. . Clarke ■ by ;the , State, . for ,' the Woreroa Farm. .The ■ cows'" of the stud stock at present are: Silver . Stream " (dam of Doctor' William/ a well-known bull), Snow Cream, and Snnray (daughters of Silver Stream), Sunlight (daughter of Stmray), Mab, bred by Mr. Wright, of Auckland, Frivolous, daughter of Mab, Princess Ena, bred by' Mr. Watkins, ,'of TJrenui, Taranaki, Dusky,, out of Snow Cream, Golden Maid, also bred by Mr. Watkins and a descendant of that grand old cow Mona. Then .thoro are also ninepedigreo hoifers, of which Mr. Veale expects four to be in nest year. The intention.is to work up to ■twenty-five head, and import new blood direct from Jersey Island. ■ Tho Dairy Herd. The whole of the dairy herd is composed of pedigree, or high-grado cows, all oxcept four having been broken in from hoifora by Mr. Vealo himself; all oxoopt eight have also been bred by him. . At the present time forty-eight cows are producing daily 1700 .pounds of milk, with a 4.1 test. Tho bulk of those cows are second and third calvers. The milking shed is fitted with four Eidd milking machines, driven by a water engine connected with the borough water Bupply. A Tangye pngiae ja alsa pa hand ia e&aa ii k vantccL.

This aleo supplies the motive power for threshing machine, winnower, chaffcutter,, anti-wood bench. No Old Stockyards. There are lid stockyards of : the old stylo. The. cows are driven into two open paddocks ■connected; with gates, and they- aro'jßien "passed into a cov-ercd-in concrete-floored shed, with a holding capacity for thirty animals. Ino cows are run from this ehed to tho bails, of which -there aro eight in number, as they are milked, the animals are passed : straight out into the second paddock. Milking usually takes about two hours, one and a half hours, when three assistants aro employed. The farm has all the necessary buildings in the shape of stables, chaff-loft manure house,' granary, cart, calves, and pig houses, Dutcb barn (holding twenty-five tons of hay). All the animal houses are concrete floored. The liquid manure passes into a large cesspit, from which it may be pumped up and distributed, over the paddocks. ■ Tho Pastures.

English grasses are. Bown and take

well, about ten varieties of early and late grasses with Flaxmore ryegrass as the main body. The grass is sometimes dressed with 2cwt. of basic slag and sometimes this quantity and Jcwt. superphosphate is sown. This year the, newly-laid down grass had 3cwt. of'

Westfield permanent grass manure drilled.: in with,. barley. _ Where : the : 'paddock's are sour, : such as reclaimed swamp, two tons of lime are usually sown to the acre. Mr. Veale has always found the grass to. take : if properly laid down, and he believes in sowing 40 pounds to the acre of best quality/and giving landextromecultivation. When the place was taken over eight years ago, thero was practically no clover in the land; now it is full of clover! even in the old pastures which have been surface-sown. It may be mentioned that Mr. ..Veale, was extremely diffident about < giving any information regarding 'iho success which das attended his efforts, owiug to the facv that'it might savour of "blowing .his own trumpet,", but he-very justly recognised, 'that the 'Story i .would, be of interest to possibly thousands of farmers, who were, prepared to study the i industry from a scientific basis.