SMALL FARMING.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3048, 2 April 1881, Page 3

SMALL FARMING.

A writer on this subject in the Otago Witjness says : — It is often an earnest inquiry how much capital is required to begin farming, what will] be the yield from the crops, and what the different items of expenses and ir.eome to be anticipated. Caution has to be exercisep in launching into amateur farming. Health and exhilarating ideas of freedom froip business cares and confinement allure sonje to the purchase of a farm, and, exercisi ag due prudence, a gratifying measure of sue-ess is often attained, but it is generally mci 'ited by steady industry. A general experience is that it is difficult to keep the outlay and working expenses from mounting up too high, that more capital is required than was anticipated, and often embarrassme nt ensues. Visionary projects must be curbed, and expenditure from the outset confined to points from which a safe and sure return is to be anticipated. if we take the case of a deferred payment setjtler, and calculate his outlay and income, ifc jwill be easy for any small farmer to form a modification of our estimate to suit his pa rticular case. A very large proportion of th b farmers of Otago in the future will owe th eir existence on the land and their prosperity to the deferred-payment system, er abling them as ifc does to make a fair stprfc with limited means. Let us suppose, fctten, rent for the first year to be £40 ; house and outbuildings, £60 ; three-horse

tiam and harness, fully £100 ; double-fur-riw plough, harrows, and dray,' £45 ; fencitpg material, £45 ; 120 merino ewes, after s learing, at 3s 6d, and two long wool rams at £2 each, £25; two milch cows, pigs, poultry, &c, £20 ; seed, £12 ; and chaff cutter, £13;— total, £360. We shall furt ber reckon that the settler goes upon his Imd in spring, in time to break up 20 acres for oats to be cut into chaff for horse feed, and other 20 acres for turnips. Ifc will take E omething in the meantime for horse feed, lufc we shall suppose that, besides this mount of labour at. home, he takes a contract of ploughing or carting until harvest time, and earns enough to pay for horse feed and household expenses ; also that he has one or more sons growing up, and able to give some assistance at fencing and other incidental work. At harvest time he may earn a little more money, besides gathering in his own crop, and then be in a more advantageous position for steadily labouring at home. By next spring he may have 90 acres ready for crop : 19 acres wheat, and one acre grass, to come in subsequently for seed—this being the 20 acres which last year was in turnips eaten off by his own sheep ; 20 acres oats for horse feed, being the earliest broken up of his new land, and hence able to be twice ploughed ; 3 acres potatoes and other root crops, being part of last year's oat stubble; and 47 acres turnips, being new land once ploughed and the remainder of the oat stubble. The income from these may be estimated thus : —l9 acres wheat, 49 bushels per acre at 4s per bushel, £152 j 3 acres potatoes and other root crops, after reserving for home use, clear £36 ; 30 acres turnips for fattening sheep, which clear 30s per acre, £45, reserving the remaining 17 acres for his own sheep ; and wool, £12 ; — total, £245. The data given in the former part of this essay will enable anyone to carry this estimate farther. Under moderately favourable circumstances I believe it will be found reliable as far as it goes. With a double-furrow plough two acres per day is often ploughed—hence the amount of land turned over might appear small to some ; but with various drawbacks and contingencies, such as wet weather, the carting of fuel and fencing material, &c, experience proves that a deferred payment settler with the capital I have supposed does not accomplish more. Some have made shift with less capital by working on a reduced scale, and depending more on wages earned by working away from home. And, on the other hand, any intelligent person, with more capital and less accustomed to hardships, can modify my statement so as to admit of his working on a more independent basis and with a greater degree of home comfort, which in his circumstances would be no indiscretion.