THE NEW FARMING.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 31 July 1914, Page 2

THE NEW FARMING.

Going through a patch of Australian forest recently, to see a farmer on business, I was suddenly pulled up by a stentorian shouting. "Hey ? Look out ! Quit like blazes !" 1 looked in the direction from which the yells proceeded, to see a gaunt figure waving his arms to me like a windmill gone mad. Apparently he was telling me to get out of the way of something, so, taking his rude advice, I "quit" into the shelter of the bush, and in a few seconds was standing beside him. ."What's up, anyway?" I jerked out after a hurried sprint. "Jes wait a bit an' you'll see," he grinned. We were standing on the edge of a clearing in the forest, and the matted undergrowth had been cleared' off by the simple expedient of driving a fire through the mass ; the blackened trunks had been felled with tho axe, piled in a heap, and were burning furiously in one corner, leaving the area dotted with a host of scorched stumps, ranging in size up to two feet in diameter". As I was trudging along conteniedly on the edge of this clearing when I was so summarily told to make a move, I wondered what obvious reason there could be, but a few seconds later I was thankful I had obeyed the summons. There was a rumble and a tearing, followed by a dull heavy crash, making it sound worse by the echo through the silent forest. A big column of earth, smoke and splinters flew into the air within a few feet of the spot I had Wn passing, to fall with an irregular thud over a wide circle. When the air cleared I observed that a huge stump which had been jutting out of the ground just before was missing. "What's the game ?" I asked, turning to the figure beside me, who was smiling with self-satisfaction. - "Farming I" "Farming ?" "You bet. This is the new agriculture," and he held out some sticks of dynamite. "Time was," 'lie said, "when you had to grub them stumps out, and mighty hard work it was, and slow, but now we just lift 'em out with a bit of dynamite." After that, when 1 saw columns of smoke rising, and heard the dull crash in the vicinity of unstamped land, I knew that the new method of farming was being practised. And to guess tljat dynamite was responsible for ploughed paddocks and big fields of thick corn would not be far out.