WHAT FARMS, FARMING, AND FARMERS OUGHT T0 BE. (From the "Adelaide Observer.")

New Zealander, Volume 7, Issue 559, 23 August 1851, Page 4

WHAT FARMS, FARMING, AND FARMERS OUGHT T0 BE. (From the " Adelaide Observer.")

Wn re-publish below an interesting letter addressed to tlipalitor of the Cumberland Pacquet by "A Fanner." A.i lo the instruction to be derived from it by practical Soulh Austiahan farmers, they will be llie best judges; but n appears to us that the subject of the communication includes much to admue, and many particulars which may be imitated even hero. There are some points in Mr. Hudson's system winch will bo staitling to fanner's generally. It appears that die rent is upwards of 235. per acre for light Noifolk land. The average outlay for oil-cake and artificial manures, over a period of twenty-eight jears, has been nearly £2000 per iin nu m upon 1400 acres of land. The fat meat sent to Sraithfield annually is upwards of £6 per acre over the whole farm. The labour amounts to <£ l 2 per acre, notwithstanding that stp«im power is made arailable in every possible way, thereby showing that the use of machinery does not decrease the employment of manual labour. lie has this jear 500 acres of wheat on a farm of 1400 acies. The following is the substance of the letter referred to : — "I went last Thursday to Castleacre, to visit my friend Mr. Hudson, whose name and writings are well known in the agricultural world; and I need not say I met with a most kind, liberal, and unostentatious reception. " It was twenty-eight year 3 since Mr. Hudson took the Castleacre faun, under L«rd Leicester (then Mr. Coke), after having cancelled five years of the old I«i3e, by which he lost £500. His rent was then £1,500 per annum for 1,-100 acres. Seven years ago the lease was renewed for twenty-one years, at £1,600 per nunuin — a fair rent at that time ; but when we consider that the saleable value ot the estate has been increased by Mr. Hudson's industry and outlay to the extent of not less than it is to be presumed that he would get a renewal oi his lease on liberal terms; or otherwise that he may, durirg the next seven years, endeavour to withdraw from the land some reasonable portion of the capital he has invested in it. " Mr. Hudson referred to his books to show that duiing his tenancy he has paid out in oil-cake and artificial manures £55,000. The od-cake is laid on the land after passing through his cattle in the act of feeding them, but slill it is money laid out in manure, 'ibis yeai his outlay is for 200 tons of linseed cake, at .£6 10?. per ton, £1,250 ; 56 tons of Peruvian guano, £5(50; nitrate of soda, sulphuietted bones, &c , about iMOO more ; besides Egyptian lentils, Indian coin, &c. ; &c, for feeding purposes. He is now feeding catile as the quack advertiseis would feed jis, namely, on Iteialenta Arabica, which is said to bo ground Egyptian lentils, to the number of loO beasts, besides 100 of lean stock and cows, all of which will lie turned into cash by May-day. They are lodged in eleven straw yaids, with .sheds all lound the quadrangle, and all abundantly supplied with food and water. With the cattle associate a good many growing pigs, which aie quick enough to pick up a living among their betters. Mr. Hudson is preparing thice beautiful Devon oxen for the Sniithliekl hhow. They appear small animals, but of excellent form and quality, and the fattest one is estimated to weigh ninety score, which at 6d. per pound is £15; and if he obtain a £ L 29 piize the ox will pay well. The mangers these animalb feed from have slate bottoms, which aie both clean and very durable. Mr. Hudson has 2,700 sheep, 2,500 of which, after their fleeces aie off, will be sold in Smithfield before midsummer, the breeding ewes being retained. The wool will all be sold before Christmas, 1851, Mr. Hudson making it a point to adopt the commercial maxim of selling all he makes, whether it be beef, mutton, pork, corn, or wool, before Ins annual &tock-taking. Kiom about the end of November, he sends about 150 quarteis of grain to market weekly, until all is .sold. His land sown and sowing with wheat this year is 500 acres, in fields of 35, 40, and 50 acies each, and in each field tho crop is stacked on circular bottoms and iron posts two feet high and three feetapait. His circular stacks are 27 feet in diameter at the bottom : of symmetrical form, and beautifully trimmed. His barleybtackß are oblong, CO feet long by 20 feet wide, and not on raised bottoms ; so that the lats, poor things, are kept on bailey instead of wheat. Mr. Hudson paid £2,950 in wages in 1849, and £2,700 in 1850, and usually receives from i.8,000 to £10,000 per annum fiom Smithfield market, according to thepiice of meat — now consideiably le-p, tho price of meat being too low to pay. He has put on bis turnip land this year 3000 tons of yaid manuie, and on hi', when < ml '2000 tons, besides guano, hones, and othci ilupgs. When 1 visited him, they viere ploughing a little field of thiity-five

acres, with ibur pans of" oxen! and as tlipy finished a ndge six or eight feet wid", and while the mould was ficsh and moist, the seed-dull follow prl ; and after the dull came the airoiv to finish with — the thiee operations all going on together. I a^ked, ' What crop had on this last?' 'Tin nips.' ' U hen did they come "oil !' ' YehtnxJnj we hauled off half, and fed off the other half wuh sheep, and they finished their feed yesteiday. We nevei let the land lie, we plough and sow dneclly we get the turnips away.' " Well, hut where are the weeds l ' • Theie are none, the turnips are kept peifectly clean. The satin' punciple is adopted m tuwiip sowing; we put in the seed instantly tLe plough has passed over ll.' " Air. Hudson u«es Howard's (of Bedford) patent plough. He bought a dozen of them four years ago at £4 15s. each. His dibbling machines cost £(>() each, lie has six load wpggons, eighteen Gloucestershire harvest waggons, twelve two-hoise tumbrils with ii on bottoms; four light Gloucestershire waggons for hay and light work, and a few one-hoise cirts — all made on the premises. llis saddlery and harness aie all repaired on the premises. All his blacksmiths' work and carpeutery is done on the piemhes. And one of Ins steam-engines was made at home. '1 his is all so different from the extent and routine of an oidinary Cumberland faini, that you may think I am lomancing. but you mu&t come and see, and (hen you will believe. " Mr. Hudson has two stationary steam-engines of 12-hoise power each, on diffeient parts of the farm j aud he finds they are not sufficient for his work, and is building a third. The castings are made in the village, and his engineer and blacksmith, with their foiges and lathes, put them together. One ot the engines was at work threshing bailey, two men were on the stacks, two loading the waggons, and two pitching from the waggons to the engine, another receiving the gtain in swills, from which he returned it into nnothor whirligig to have the beaids taken off. The straw came out at :inoth»r place, and was pitched aivny ; and a cloud of chaff and dust showed where the winnowing was going on. The same, engine was, at the time, pumping water, giindmg llavalenta Arabica, and biealnng oil-cake. The same machine aKo pi esses lm«eed lor extracting the. oil, which is put into huge wine pipes and sent to Amenca for sale, and the cake goes to feed the cattle. Tbeie is also attached a flour-mill, for grinding the lefuse coin, beans, &c, for feeding purposes; a saw mill, and othei conveniences. The cait-wheel felloes are cut out in segments by the machinery of the engine, and much other woik clone by steam agency. Mr. Hudson has forty work horses and eighteen working bullocks. The latter work double (7( 7 half) shifts, viz., two oxen in a plough ; he keeps four ploughs at work ten hours a day, and they plough from one and aquarter to one and a-half acres daily each plough. The straw was cut into chaff, the turnips are sliced, and other roots are cut by the steam machinery. Mr. Hudson has two suits of clothes, one fine, and the other coaise, and his wile has a beautiful shawl, ail of their own wool. (t As for a thistle growing on the farm, you might safely offer a guinea for it j and the land is, for 1400 acres, like a garden. Women and boys are constantly employed picking up every stray weed, and sometimes they contiact for it by the acre. Altogether, the faim, the faimer, and the style of farming, is^ such as few Cumberland faimera can have any idea of."