ARABLE FARMING OR GRAZING ?

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 49, 25 February 1873, Page 4

ARABLE FARMING OR GRAZING ?

(From the Australasian.) Our readers have, from time to time, been made aware of the fact of a diminution in the area of arable land having taken place of late years in Ireland ; they have been in some measure, also, informed of the causes of this change. The extensive emigration from that portion of the empire having reduced the number of available hands, the tenant farmers have been compelled by the scarcity of labor thus occasioned to lay down large proportions of their holdings in grass. That this has been done to an extent unwarranted by the primary cause is very well known and admitted. The net result to the farmers was discovered to be about the same in each case, whilst the trouble and unpleasantness of directing unwilling and incompetent hands was avoided by the coarse adopted. But while things have thus been rendered more agreeable to the farmer, the nation has suffered materially; the land in pasture is unequal to the task of keeping as many head of stock as the same area in tillage used to do ; hence, the number of stock as shown at the last census has somewhat declined, and as the process of laying down grasses is still going on, the diminution in numbers may be expected still further to continue. In England also, as the agricultural statistics have shown, for several years past a steady though not great diminution in the live stock has been in progress, and the causes are said to be the same aB in the case of Ireland — the increasing difficulty , of obtaining suitable labor. So important a change as this has naturally given rise to discussions, which have occupied not only the correspondence columns of agricultural journals, but also those devoted to editorials. From the arguments employed, and the facts cited in support, we may be able -to glean a few useful hints for our readers, as well as to discover some important points of difference between old

world conditions and our own. Emigration is but doing for the farmer at borne what the land policy of the Australian colonies is doing for our own. A few years hence, if emigration from Ireland proceeds at the rate it has lately done j grazing will be the rule and root-growing the exception, for to roots chiefly is the feeding power of arable farming due. In the Be colonies, also, the policy of making every man a farmer has left the older farmers no option ; in Belf-defence they have laid down in pasture a very large proportion of their land. The net results, however, are materially different ; whereas the Irish farmer maintains less stock than formerly, the Australian one now keeps a great many more, because his so-called arable farming was merely a system of exhausting his laud by meaus of grain crops; ha grew no roots, ekpt no stock excepting on pasturage, and working stock only on that. Any change, therefore, from arable to pasturage must result in his case satisfactorily for the state, instead of in the opposite way, as at home. There is a slight further difference between grazing in Britain and in Victoria, which is auother point in favor of the latter. The winters of the former being severe, all stock that is left on the pasture is virtually starving six months out of the twelve; in this country, excepting in a few specially cool districts, cattle thrive at" grass the whole year round. The housing of stock during wiuter might, however, be practised with advantage where dairying is carried on, if under no other conditioos, but, as a rule, the attention of those of our farmers who have suitable land for grazing should be directed towards improving their pastures, and thus enlarging their stock-carry iDg capacity. If the high price of labor and its inferior quality place a limit on tillage operations, it should surely not be necessary to abstain from employing labor enough to lay down land in grass in an efficient manner. In many districts a long course of arable farming has destroyed so completely the natural grasses that land left to itself produce? nothing but noxious weeds. It is, no doubt, spurious economy to leave [land in that condition to " recover " itself. Whether labor be scarce or not, it will be more profitable to employ it in securing a good supply of herbage than to adopt the colonial let-alone system of converting arable land into pasture. Even should it be necessary to break up again for a season the land we may desire to convert into grazing ground, it should be done. The good management of pastures is not the idle business imagined by many on first relinquishing arable farming. On many kinds of land the feed gradually diminishes year after year, unless steps are taken to thicken the sole and maintain the vigor of the plant by top dressings or resort to shesp. On every grazing farm, therefore, should be set aside yearly a crop of seed which Bhould be sown in the autumn over all the bare or thin spots. Managed in this way, the maintenance of the pastures involves no considerable outlay of capital; the cost, indeed, is a mere trivial item, and is repaid many times over in the next year's grazing. The expediency of converting arable land into pasture can be determined only on the spot. The climate and rainfall of certain districts, as along our southwestern coast, at once indicate grazing as the proper system there; then there can be no question in reference to the uses to which low-lying lands on the margins of rivers should be put. In New South Wales, numerous losses of crops occnr by ploughing lands whose immunity from inundation cannot be guaranteed for a single season. Although heavy crops of maize are sometimes gathered from such lands, the profits arising from an occasional success is insignificant in comparison with the certain results of grazing them. To break up these flats is an error of the first magnitude; they can be applied to no purpose so profitable as the fattening of stock. There are also districts in which the crops seem peculiarly subject to rust, take-all, and other affections; in these, again, grazing will usually be the right thing unless a near market can be found for some crop that is free from objection. The large areas of country that are covered with boulders should, of course, be reserved for stock; the grass between the stones possesses fattening qualities of the first order, and with proper management (if judiciously under-stocked) it will need no assistance in the way of reseeding. In offering, at the approach of autumn, these few remarks upon the principles and practice of grazing we do not profess to lay down any strict rule, because, as we have already intimated, no such rule can be framed to meet the variety of existing circumstances. The one broad principle of ploughing a comparatively small area, of supporting the pastures, and of thus augmenting the grazing capabilities of the country, should never be lost sight of, but r the mode ;pfj carry ing it into effect must be left to each husbandman to determine for himself. -• ■ •','■•:' -S. . ': , ' '' ' i:

The arrival of the steamer ' Victoria ' at Sydney, after an excellent passage of?7O days from London, has placed at the disposal of the A. S.N. Company the largest carrying steamship ia the colonies. Her length is 250 feet; depth of hold, 34 feet She is spar- decked, and carries 300 tons of water ballast when required. The new steamer has been brought out in first class order, and her commander, Captain SullivaD, who has long been connected with the New Zealand coast service, reports highly of her ns a sea-boat. Mrs Beattie, of Halton-Shieldsy England, was stung recently on the wrist by a bee. A swelling of tho bowels and throat set in with great severity, and in the course of half-an-hour from the occurence she expired. Anolher death from the sting of a bee occurred in England lately. Asmallyachtoffive tons, the Marguerite, at present Jying in the Seine, at Paris, is about to undertake a voyage to New York. Captain Bailiff, who commands ber, announces that he is ready to take with him four passengers, and that he proposes to stop a week in each of the several places at which he will call in order to take stores in and "see the country." Iq undertaking the voyage, he is, he says, mainly animated by the desire to show that maritime daring is not confined to England and the United States. • • " Mr Farjeon. — The Watchman, a Wesleyan paper, thus speaks of this gentleman, who is well-known in Australia and New Zealand : — Another Christmas number (that: of «* Ticsiey's Magazine," Tinsley Brothers), entitled " Bread and Cheese and Kisses," by Mr B. L. Farjeon, claims attention from the fact that the writer is one of the rising authors of the day. The aim of the story is not so distinct as in "Blade o' Gra3s," and Mr Farjeon at times seems uncertain in his grasp of the characters. But the same love and tenderness towards the poor, the same kindness of tone and felicity of language which characterised his previous story, are shown. in his present work. A quiet, sustained power, with a love for all that is beautiful and good in nature, and a reverence for the Creator, are noticeable in all his writings. And he is especially charming when dealing with children. Election of Mayor for Wolverhampton. — Mr Isaac Jenks was lately elected Mayor for "Wolverhampton. The Rev. J. Egltngton who preached the sermon before the Mayor and Corporation. in the Wesleyan Chapel, remarked : — " It would not, he hoped, be unseemly for him to say to the Corporation with what joy he heard it honestly affirmed the other day amongst them and cordially received, that iu the selection of the chief magistrate they regarded first with importance high personal character, a^ the basis of all the rest. Character must influence the -whole of the institutions of the town; character, by its very selection must, to some extent, be reflected; character must exert an influence far and wide, holding as they did that it was the highest personal character that was wholly formed and controlled by the principles of Divine truth, the Holy Gospel. In proportion as that was cherished, it would help them to mould and form public wants in the Legislative "Council. It would give sanctity and efficiency to law and power in carrying out the duties devolving upon them." Chinese Music. — The Tuapeka Times gives the following not very flattering notice of the musical performances of the Chinese in celebrating the advent of the New Year : — u A noticeable feature of the New Year festivities at Chinatown was the vocal and instrumental performances of several Celestial musicians. The instruments used resemble the kithara of the ancient Greeks, and the strains produced in some instances bore striking affinity to those emitted by the Highland bagpipes. Some of the simpler tunes played were not unlike Scotch reels; while the more pretentious compositions rendered reminded us of no earthly sound save the bowling of a gale through the cordage of a full-rigged ship. The vocalista would drive an opera-house, full- of people of musical taste mad in one minute thirty seconds by the watch. They sing in an unraelodious grating falsetto, and their songs were spun out to an unconscionable length. One magnificent flight of Mongolian genius: in the way of a love song, warbled by a Chinese minstrel, will long lancinate our acoustic organs'. The singer stood bolt upright with one almond eye gazing intently '•'■ into eternity, and his other optic fixed reproachfully on the accompanyist. He rendered passionate entreaty by a : succession, of\ screeches, such as Maggie gave when she seized the tail of Tam O < Sbanter-'s..,mare:-;at the Brig o* Doon, and the tender passages found expression in sounds compared to.w^ich the moaning of a suffering infant woum- be seraphic musicV^Per^^ there was an independent flVmn^slf : 86 J me one was vigorously- Bharpening :'ar saw in theimiWedilfe^itoinity^"' 1 -' '■ '. ■ '■„./