FARMING IN ENGLAND.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 1, Issue 25, 28 August 1912, Page 4

FARMING IN ENGLAND.

How They Grow Potatoes. Pukekohe Farmer on British Methods. [By Leo Bilkey. | On a Sltkolk Fakm.

After having a good look around London, my first farming place to go to was Suffolk, a very nice littlo country placo. I have a friend there. lie is holding 500 acres and crops about 300 of it. Wheat, oats, and beans are his main crops. He usos all the produco ho grows for fattening bullocks and pigs. The way they work laud here would not do at all for our land. Say they are going to put iu a field of oats. They wdl plough it six inches deep the first time, and leave it for four woeks; next they will start and plough across ways, without discing or harrowing. When this is finished they leave it for throo weeks, and then start and plough it the other way. They do this about five or six times. Then they will put the harrows and tho grubber to work and get it in good order that way. Tho farmers are greatly against usiug discs, and a great many of them are still using tho one-handled plough to-day as 100 years ago. My fiieud showed me a new plough he had bought for the men to use. They used it for one week, that was all, put it to one side, and there it remains. Growing Oats.

They drill their oats in the same as we do, and put on about three t > throe and a-half bushels to the acre. After this is up a mouth they stait to hoe it. All tho big farmers have horse hoes ; the littlo ones hoe their fields by hand labour. Very often they have to hoe it twice. I must say they drill in about two so thiee cwt. of super with the seed, which is all that it gets. Some of the land has been cropped for 50yeais. Then comes tho cutting—not with the binders as we do. That would not do for them here. They have a swath cutter. This machine cuts tho corn and leaves it in aud it it is all tied with hand. My friends til mo it is a long way cheaper than cutting with the binder. You see tho twino for 300 acres comes to a nice penny. They grow about two tons of chaff to the acre if they got a good season.

Clovek Seed Thoy make u good tiling out of tho clover souls. This is tho way thoy do that. Tho first cutting of clover goes in the stack for hay, and tho socund cutting for tho seed. This is cut tho same way as the oats and wheat, and tied up in bundles. They leave it out until they think it dry enough to stack. It is nut in the stack and loft there for two or throo months, when it is threshed, cleaned, ; .nd sent all over ill" world.

High lihNis and Kates. While walking over the farm my friond tells uio tlm f it tukos £ll per acr.' to farm his place. I ijuito believe it In very nearly every place the hind routs aro still going up Road rates aro very high all over England, and aro still going up Tho landlords aro putting it on to tho farmo s every time.

Wages of Workers. I asked my friend what wages ho was paying his men. And what do you think tho unsw. r was ? "My hot ,r ot 15s per week, a littlo cottage, and u little garden. Ho has to start 6 o'clock in tho morning and works until G in tho ovoning." Ami so on down to 10s per week for big strapping men. I was surprised to see ouch mon working for such wages.

On my way back I stopped in Essex, a nice little farming placo. Hero thero were a great lot of women out in the fields, hoeing and weeding. Their wages run from Is lOd to 2s Gd per day; somo of thorn have to walk 2A miles to work. Ton hours lu.iko a days' work here. In somo places around Essex thoy are rated only at 7s Gd in the pound. At TnE .Stock Market.

My next stop was in Newport There is not very much cropping done thore. There aro two or three lords who own pretty nearly all of Newport, and they won't lease the land to bo cropped. They bolievo in keeping it for pleasure—deer hunting and so on. While I was thero I wont to tho cattle market and must say it did sooin vory funny to see all tho cattle tied up, just liko a lot of horses. Tho pricos aro just twico as high as in Now Zealand : Tigs '23s to -'sos; fat cows {$ cwt) £ls 17s; old cows (10 cwt) £l3 10s; two-year heifers (8 cwt) £lB 17s.

Ovt-ok-Pate Garden. My noxt stop wan in Cornwall. This is supposed to bo the garden of England for the early crops. It might liave'tt&n one day. It was not at all what I'pxpectod to soo. I just got there when they worn busy getting up tho p tatoos. Thny work hero altogether diffoient to what wo do. It is all stable manure they use. They put en about 10 to GO loads to one aero, if they can get it, ami a little super. They put all the potatoes in with tie- fdlovol, and plant the rows 14 inches apart and 11 inches from set to set. When they come through just hoe thorn, that is all. They never mould them. They ar» all dug with tho shovel, and you will see as many as 40 mou and woiw n in tho potato field. lie' pi taties are all packed in baskotsV'ind sent all over the place; s >iie' of ihn potatoes being no biggor than the top of your little linger. Jlore the wages run from -'< to "s fid per day f-T ago d man. Some of the farmer* are paying from £•'• to £lO per acre for the pick of tlie land They get from live to nine ton to tie; aire . the price was 7s per cwt when I was down then*.

Talk abont learning anything here in fanning Why one would very soon forgot what little hn did know. All I have to say is that I do not think very much of the Old Country . the land loids ale rotten to the hone' I think it would do a lot of Now Zealand chaps good if they wore overhoio fur a while. Why in Kngliiud at the present tone tic re are 1,000,000 iiu-n mlios- wages d-iii'l el,mi- 22s per Week. The> have to I<< ep ;,,(,■ and clilidleli on this. We in New Zealand do not know we are alive yet