A BIG COLONIAL FARM.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue 73, 13 May 1881, Page 4

A BIG COLONIAL FARM.

We take the following from Mr Dow's notice of the New Zealand Agricultural Company's property : — The big farms of America are heard of all over the world, but comparatively few know anything about the extensive agricultural operations of New Zealand ; ynt from 3000 to 5000 acres of grain crop is not uncommon in this Uoloriy. It if a heavy undertaking to get 10,700 actes of land ploughed and sown in one season, yet Mr Chaplin, managed this in a few months employing from 46 to 52 four-horse double-furrow ploughs. . . . Atfirst the new land is ploughed three or four inches deep, just giving soil enough to cover .thejulver tussock which coven the ground in its natural state. A crop of turnips is sown broadcast, which is afterwards fed off, carrying about six skeep per acre for %vo or three months in winter. The •heep .arc- sometimes divided on the turnips by means of cord netting, and ■ nuetunes merely turned into the pad* docks. The next step is to plough three or four inches deeper, effectually turning down the tussock roots, wh«i> a good crop of wheat or oats w obtained. The third stop is to plough again and sow down in grasses, a few turnips being put in to afford protection to the grass, and give feed while the pasture is in it* earlier stages. It will be seen from this that the Company's grain gi owing is only a means to an end, and the end is to get the land into artificial pasture. In passing, it may be pointed out that a large proportion of the cultivation carried on the Colony is undertaken quite as much for the sake of grass growing as grain growing; and if the freezing process is net soon established as an outlet for meat, I expect fat stock to become a drug in the local market. The best land I have seen in the Col•ny will barely keep a merino sheep to the acre in its natural state, wkile in grasses it will keep thiee cross* breds, or five times the stock. . . . . Judgingfrom the yields obtained from the crops in the New River district, I should have estimated tho return at a higher figure than Mr Chaplin ; but his estimate, though apparently low to one who has seen the fields, will be considered high enough by those who arc accustomed to farm in a less favorable climotc. The oats were expected to yield from 40 to 50 bushels per acre, the wheat 40 bushels, and the b;irley 45. The paddockß are large; for, although there are 420 miles of fencing erected and in course of erection upon the estate, there is yet much work to be done in the way of subdivision. From 600 to 800 acres of wheat in one paddock looks large, and after a day's rule through fields of this kind one's ideas of area get somewhat confused. There are this year 1500 acres of oats »nd 150 of barley, while no less than 10,700 acres have been broken up and sown with grasses during the season, which with tbe old grass land, makes up a total of 23,000 acres cultivated.