SHEEP AND WHEAT CULTURE

Patea Mail, Volume V, Issue 494, 25 February 1880, Page 2

SHEEP AND WHEAT CULTURE

The value of sheep in connection with wheat raising (says the Willamette j Farmer) is too well established to need argument, but we hear of instances so directly in point that wo cannot do onr fanner readers a greater service than to mention them. John Pugh had a peico of fall wheat that promised largely, and yet he was advised to put his sheep on it, which he concluded not to do. The wheat grew remarkably, there was a heavy straw, and the yield was 20 bushels per acre. It was evident that the sheep would have cropped down the heavy growth, added richness to the soil, and insured less straw and double the amount of wheat, or at least a much heavier yield. fc?o he thinks, and no doubt correctly. W. J. Herren tells ns of a case over in Polk country, near Bethel, where two neighbours had fields of wheat on similar soil, and in all respects but one with similar cultivation. One—Mr Beyte—last spring put sheep on hife wheat and let them crop it quite close. Some of his neighbours predicted that it was ruined, but he icalised sixtyone bushels to the acre; while his neighbor, who let the first rank growth mature got only half that yield. Dan Clark, near Salem, has a small field that was in potatoes, and as the growth was rank, last spring he let hogs and stock run on it until the wheat seemed almost exterminated. It was his intention to re-sow it, but as other wo.-k claimed his attention he deferred it until it appeared that there would be wheat enough come up. The result is that it is the best wheat he has. It is evidently true that good wheat farming cannot be done without sheep, for their utility in summer fallow is'beyond question.

THE TARANAKI PRISONERS. The following is a translation of a loltoi whice appeared in the New Zealand Times of Wednesday last: [Translation.] To the editor of the New Zealand Times. Friend, — We send yon, for the purpose of having it published in your newspaper, the resolution of the Maori chiefs who assembled at Otakl on the 9th of this month, with respect to the Taranaki prisoners who have been sent to Otago by the Government without any reason being stated for such a cuuise. All the chiefs, with the whole of their tribes, condemn the action of the Government in this matter. The prisoners bad not been tried, and there was no reason shown for their removal from the place which had been agreed upon by the late Government as their location till the time of their trial. We, the Maori chiefs, with our tribes, could not have been grieved at this action of the Government if they had published a notice of their intention, or had given some reason to the Maori for tin's treatment of the prisoners. We are completely bewildered when we try to ascertain some cause for thus removing the prisoners in the dark, after the manner of committing a theft ; and the more we ponder upon it the sadder we become.—We are, &c., (Singed) Renata Kawepo, and the Ngatikahiingnnn Tribe. (Signed) Karanamate Kapukaiotu, and the whole of the Ngatirnakawjt Tribe. Otaki, February 12, 1880.