CORRESPONDENCE.

Southland Times, Issue 1223, 15 March 1870, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

We do not hold ourselves responsible for opinions expressed by correspondents. ' All commumca- ( tions must be accompanied by the name and address of the writer, as a guarantee of goo'i A faith. Correspondents are requested tb write only on one side of the paper, and, to prevent .... mistakes:, thei/ should write as legibly as passible. Brevity i6ill be a recommendation. -\,.,: ' '-'•*" _. <m ' 'A — " ; , "'•-■'■ „-->-.-'.. (TO THE BDITOB OF THB TIMBS.) Sir, — That the present se ison of barvest has. been thus ;f arc -unusually coarse, and severe will, I think,, be generally allowed, although such seasons (so far as mv experience goes) too frequently are accompanied with ungenial weather and a moist atmosphere, and if the friends who so strenuously advocate "protection" could invent some scheme to shield us from these adverse influences,; and enable us to collect and store the fruits of our labor in good condition, it would^ be far more advantageous than endeavoring, by : means of a duty, to prevent the importa- . tion of wheat or flour for mixing with our home-grown corn, the only means by which any portion of our crop in such a season as the present can be rendered even digestible, or enable the baker or housewife to place upon our tables a loaf that will please themselves or satisfy consumers. lam not desirous of seeing the " staff of life " imported | far from jit*, and #1- \ -_i though we cannot in 'the -present "State of the province, with such a season as this has been, divest ourselves ofthe necessity, yet with increased breadth under cultivation, and the gradual improvements that must take place in our system of agriculture gener illy, we may hope to render ourselves independent of other countries in most seasons. Wet harvests in "this part ofthe colony cannot be considered as exceptional, and seeing the evils that have arisen from the course that they are now pursuing,, good farmers will endeavor to avoid, so . far as lies in their power, a too frequent repetition of them. The broadcast system has been given up wherever agriculture has made any advance, and draining, subsoil ploughing, manuring, rodt crops, and cleaning are becoming the rule. The drill, the horsehoe, and „ other matters wilt have to become familiar with us ere we can expect to succeed satisfactorily in producing either wheat for grinding or barley for malting. In fine weather, if the land was. cle^n, you. could carry a few hours after cutting, but with a foul bottom, the Tubbish requires more time than corn in the field, and is the great evil in the stack, especially when cut close ** to the ground by machinery. T would not, however, use this as an argument against the employment of machinery in cutting, but rather for using more in planting and. cleaning, insuring thereby a larger ■-• crop on a smaller space, and of a superior quality. It is to the interest of the farmers in these.pro vinces that New Zealand malt _ shoidd take its place and become a standard article in the colonial market, to secure y^htchf; they: "miwtlsp^e nis pains in obtaining good seed,. and culti- , vating it on the motft approved principles) and their reward will follow. We this season hear of wheat being a , failure to a large extent in the ©amarji district : let us take warning, and, by a judicious and salutary change of crop, endeavor to avoid this evil. It is much easier to keep our land in condition than to restore it after prolonged bad management or neglect. : j Should you deem ithese few times I worthy of a place an your columns, I may again trouble you. — Tour's, &c, Speed the Plough. (TO THB EDITOB OF THB inCSS.) -. S rß) — x don't suppose any " Preveriffitf*' of Cruelty to Ani:nals Society" exists here, consequently the treatment of the !' brute creation is left to the^ caprice* or;' temper of all and sundry who haye anything to do with it. But I think it onlyright that cases of gross ill-usage bTioull j be made pnblic that the moral influence iof the community may exercise «omo " needed restraint. The slaughter oF ctfttite - for human food is an acknowledged necessity, and when it is accomplished with th© least possible pain to the beast, no fault can or will 'be found, but it too 'fre- | quently happens that cattle thus Aoomefl. j to the *hami>les are needlessly toifturefl. before being killed. I -notice that -every I now and again a moo of bollocks aTe m» into a .email -paddock near tfhe >slaughter- | yards down the Bluff roafl, where they j are allowed to remain without food until they are killed off by degrees, an 'operation which sometimes extends over etettt or ten days. The poor brutes left to to» last-must thus suffer for a long peBoE-rftt; ' the pangs of hanger. One woulfl hmh thought that self-intere^ would "hay* secured their comfort being attended to by their owners, but it appears that the loss of flesh from a Ettie starvation Ss trifling compared to the trouble involve*"! in feeding them. If the want -of ffooA only deteriorates the 'quality of the meat instead of reducing its quantity — as it W said at first to do — tbe matter, of course, concerns their -customers more than St does the butchers. Perhaps ""it might have a good (effect were the public to object a little more -vigorously to tough. steaks, and to iimsist -on having their sirloins cut from a -carcase not previously deprived of its natural juices by a long fast— Tours, &c, BucoiißCfrg.