COLONIAL FARMING.
"■''■'•lt will be admitted that we cannot do Inhere as in America,' work a track of land 1,1 till its wheat growing povyers are exhausted and then move on to still more.exten - ~ sive tracts ready at opce to be.brokcn up '[ find brought into cultivation. The settler here, eaniiotj as in 'America, live on tjie ' "'spoils of tiicr 'toil,-marching onward, sub- ' Huing the' country, and-' exacting tribute.' The'land lndst be 1 farmed* on the principal , of,, economy. "In till countries wheie; {iindfit'for immediate cultivation is still abundant, it is beginning to be found that, 'exhausting' the ' soil' by ■ growing. wheat \.4 ; '*-^P*®Jt6r-wheat , crojfifwhhftut rotation, and. even p'roper manuring, is not altogether a ■ \'pitying concern;-the settler "may .march *•' li dfiward" tod' -sub'dCie'" the soil, but like y/ ie'rofs: he'leaves devastation and ' i virmrreh'fieSs behind him." ,■ 'So said a distin-- : pre&ident of an A gricultural Aeso-; yrtStioir'at'itjl 'recent'annual meeting. Every sure, be endorsed'by experienced farmers. Jty evidence of .the .ill effects of: 'farming ' " SvfthWt fegUrd 'to system, hear what Mr.' An thony-Trollop*; says of Houth ■ Australr 'mv fnfmirfg The'Vtf'ect -of, it is dele-
. .ffiari has but one fanning occupation, thqt ' ' ,, ',uf v 'giVivviiig 'wheat.-'.lie'ploughs, and-mid'sella;'and-ploughs, and'reaps uti'i selß, again -lie employs, his energies omtKe one occupation, which no di- "• 'Unification of interest; and with nothing , to'm'OUPc liia intelligence ..Butthe efft on thf' Iftnd is'worse .thiiii that on the b. 'for the lftp'd'clearly deterioiates from yto day, The'yield of wheat 'm -SoutJi. * ' Australia has been poor, but it has " ter< ftfiy"fulfen fjff. In yix years, 'from 'ISOO to 1b60.' it avuraged ahoul twelve•bushels on,acre. and in-the,six subsequent •' yearMt/tivemgfM only Siine." Look at-the^tufiwtics-of fanpjiig-in Victoria, and ' ' we fifid-confirmation of (;he same deterior- " result of bad.fanning.- ■ ' Joh\ question are there presented. Wejritic| -two* farmers; living'. side by side, aitirt farming. land origpially, ;'*!s or'precisely thesnipe qtidfty, hut the/ one (arming on the. principle of exhaustion! the :Oth«»r on thfit'of rotation iind maniir;ing. Tihtf first gets-six bushels aniii-rts.aud the
second; gets forty. One man for instance, writes that: he lives.- in the .middle 'of a wornrout district, where, the average yield is twelve bushels •an acre ; hiit'ho hasrgot; forty rfour. And what fis his,secret? Merely that he has manured his land with the /refuse of a boiling-down establishment,' which is near, at hand. Without due attention to manuring and rotation of- crops, the soil, however productive in its virgin state, will certainly deteriorate Even in the vast and almoslv inexhaustible wheat growing - plains ... of California, -complaints of this nature are beginning to arise; and companies, are 'already-jbrmed for carrying out, extensive works of drainage ,and-.-< irrigation. - ; So great was the importance felt for introducing an improved system of farming, that a General. Congress, not long ago, was , advertised to. meet at San. Erancisco for the purposeloficonsidering the..practicability of applying some general and uniform system to the entire country. 1 :It is matter, well .worthyr'. r.f ; consideration; whether something of a similar nature could not be adrvantageously dealt with by the Canterbury Provincial- .Council. The Agriculjturnl . Associations are the mediums through -which the , administrations of judicious measures could be brought into operation. <to the ' Timaru Herald.'
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Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 254, 16 January 1874, Page 4
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520COLONIAL FARMING. Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 254, 16 January 1874, Page 4
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