Correspondence

Feilding Star, Volume XIV, Issue 151, 10 June 1893, Page 2

Correspondence

SMALL FARMS. TO THE EDITOR 6f THE STAR. Sir,— The subject Freetrade and Capital I have by no means exhausted, bnt may revert to them again, but before entering into the subject of strikes, and as I alluded to the small farmer in ray laßt letter, I now write a few lines upon that subject. Some people would call a small plot of land a farm, which would more appropriately be termed a vegetable or fruit garden as a holding. My idea of a small farm is a portion of land sufficient in area for a working man to make a home, and in course of time an independence, and to become in turn an employer of labor. Now, I consider that such a farm as this, if contentment is secured, is the greatest prize that this earth has to offer to the thrifty and per* severing, there is not the amount of anxiety and responsibility connected with it as there ate in the ease of large estates. As to provision for families, it is best for them to follow that calling to which they have some special gift or adnptibility by nature, whether it is farming or other persnits, and not to look forward to any provision made for tbeir starting in life without difficulties and exertion. As a rule difficulties are always in the way of obtaining any great prize, bnt after having been attained to, the poor man cannot point the finger of scorn, and say, that the small farmer had grabbed too much of this earth's surface. ; The difficultbs in the wayl require patience, selfdenial, working early and late hours, and exposure, but nevertheless those means bring into action all the best physical and mental qualities of the man to attain the object in view, and if he by those means obtains the farm as his own, then this is true eelf-relian-je. There are no other means under the light of the sun, that a man will take so ranch interest in his work, whether it is by landlordism, or land held by the state, than looking forward to a home he can call his own, and at the same time would lead towards perfection in cultivation. Perfection in agriculture is still far off, and a great deal to be learned by practioal personal experience such as the prevention ol insect pests, climatic influences, and adaptibUity of different soils and manure for different kind* ol vegetal ion. With the inclination and this end. in view those moderate areas would each beebtoe experimental farms as in a few cases they nre already, and the various practical experiences of numerous farmers would conduce a great deal more to improved methods iv farming than any model system under state- control, especially as the managers of state farms would very likely be chosen from their political colot rather than from any gift or adaptability for the billet In Ireland the leasehold system has given rise to a quantity pi small farms and holdings occupied bj tenants depending in a great measure on the potato as the staple food supply, whicb esculent by repeated culture become: sick of the soil that it grows in, and thereby subject to a chronic and periodical disease at which times the tenant hasne rent to pay but requires assistance. This is not progressive farming, but is a system that has continued from age to age, and produces poverty, and poverty breeds discontent. The native - New Zealandei although a barbarian a little over fifty years back (as a fre3 agent) has a more enlightened mode of cultivation than the foregoing. But it is in the direction 01 ehe above unprogresaive mode of framing that the almost forcing process of attempt ing to settle the "unemployed on land 03 the liberal?, although it may be against those mtn'» grain as believers in the eight hours system or unsuitableness in othai ways, would tend to. Some public work to give those men employment would b< less dangerous to the state and more conducive to the working man's welfare than the above system. The opinion of Mi Gladstone, the great liberal, in one of hie speeches is that the state is not fit to exercise the function of the landlord, and although the great G.O.M. has a fad 01 two, yet he no doubt was correct upon this subject. I am, etc., A Colonist.