Sheep Farming

Feilding Star, Volume XI, Issue 151, 14 June 1890, Page 4

Sheep Farming

The following letter appeared in Thursday's N.Z. Times ■: -Sir. In _your issue of. this morning appears a 'paragraph copied from the Manawatu Times, heade4 productiveness of the Manawatu soil. Nothing can be more misleading thau the figures and the ■deductions, which show a return for seven jinqn the, of £3 2s per acre, and •classed as a profit, The farmer in this •ease omits to charge, as a debit, the -cost of 464 hoggets, at 7s, £162 Bs,--he. also 'omits to charge for farm labour, sheariner, interest on capital, horses, implements, &«., which I will jnow do: —

Such fallacious returns as given by your contemporary, and copied by •other journals without investigation, ;are calculated to do a great deal of harm by promoting erroneous ideas of the profits of sheep farming, and generally to unsettle many persons •following other occupations, who would naturally think there was nothang like farming and would be indined, to look scornfully upon the product of their own callings. Very iew farmers keep their accounts iv a •business-like way, and their returns And, profits, as given by themselves, should be taken with a grain of salt —I am, etc., H. C. Wilson.

Dr— £ s. d. 'To purchase of 464 hoggets, at . 7s ... ... 162 8 0 Xabour, one man at 6s per diem .... 54 0 0 Shearing «fc 18a per 100 ... 4 3 6 Interest on £1000 at 8 per cent 46 13 4 TJse of horses, and implements 10 0 0 and property-tax ... 8 0 0 £285 410 Cr-f By' wool 30 0 0 „, *200 sheep sold 150 0 0 „, 230 sheep sold 130 0 0 „, 400 .bushels oats at Is Sd ... 33 6 8 ±343 6 8 Less outlay 285 4 10 Net profit 1 10