The Farm.

Southern Cross, Volume 1, Issue 22, 26 August 1893, Page 11

The Farm.

THE BEST FARM IN THE W O R L D. Mr William J. Harris, an English ■visitor to Hew Zealand, and until lately a member of the House of Commons, has written an article under the above heading in the Argus, the property thus described being the farm of Mr Grrigg-, Longbeach, Canterbury. We subjoin a few extracts : In my examination of the stock, the part that most interested me was the dairy. About 60 milch cows are kept, and Mr and Mrs M'Guinness, who undertake the entire management, are about as likely a couple as I have •ever had the pleasure of meeting. M‘Guinness milks 24 cows morning and evening. His wife undertakes 16, and they keep two boys, who each milk 10 or 12. The two boys get 10s per week and rations. M‘Guinness has 25s per week and his rations and £lO extra for harvest money. His wife has 12s per week as well as rations. Their cottage is rent free and firinggiven in. The rations of man and wife consist of the following-:— Fresh meat, 281 b per week, or if less be used money in place. Tea, -|lb per week. Sugar, 3|4b per week. Bread, 201 b per week. Milk, ad libitum. They rise at 4 o’clock in the morning-, and seldom leave off work till 8 o’clock in the evening. Mrs M'Guiness has made and packed away with her own own hands as much as 7601 b of butter in a week. She looks the picture of health, and hard work seems to suit her. The stock of sheep on the farm usually consists of 30,000 to 35,000 at one time. The kinds kept are the Shropshire Down, Leicester, and Border Leicester. Mr Grrigg sells every year from his own permanent flock about 12,000 fat wethers and lambs, and. he buys more than 20,000 store wethers and fattens them as well for the London market. He likewise fattens about 400 cattle which he buys in. Ho cake is used, but they get a little straw and corn in the winter. Contrary to the usual custom in Hew Zealand, Mr Grrigg gives his cows extra feed all the winter. It may, perhaps, cost £2 per head. He assures me that he nets as much as £l2 10s per cow from the dairy results by this management, and that one year the result was even better. I examined the results of other cow-keepers, who did not bring their cows in, for the winter months, and I could not make the result come to more than £lO per annum per COW. The rest of the stock consists of pigs. One year Mr Grig-g- had as many as 5000, but he did not find it a paying- game to keep so many. His management of pigs is well worth describing. He only allows his sows to have one litter in each year, early in the spring. They litter in the clover fields, a large number of heaps

of straw being placed near the fences giving the most shelter. They live on the clover until midsummer, when they are mustered, weaned, earmarked, &c., and are then kept in the yards, and fed on grain until the stubbles are ready for them, or sometimes the}* stock a field of peas, which they entirely clear. They remain on the stubbles for about two months, when they are yarded and fed until drafts are ready for the bacou-curing establishments. When in the yards they are fed on seconds grain soaked for 12 to 24 hours. Every yard has a concrete water tank, with a runningstream of water through it. Cleanliness and warmth are a most important matter in pig fattening. The straw shelters are for warmth and shelter only. The arrangements for economical management are so complete that one man undertakes the feeding 1500 to 1800 large pigs in the yards at one time. Your agricultural readers may exclaim Credat Judaeus, but it is nevertheless quite true.