FARMING AT HOME.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 310, 29 December 1908, Page 4

FARMING AT HOME.

WIIAT A .NEW ZEALAXDIiK bi\V. -\lr Owen Pleasants, the well-known lialconibc fanner, has just returned from a visit to the Home country. (Speaking to a Feilding Star reporter he gave an interesting account of some valuable impressions. it was in .Norfolk—" where my people are still .farming where 1 was brought up ''—that Jlr Pleasants mixed most intimately with the fanning classes, nut his observations there were comtirmcd liy what he saw in other places. The outstanding feature was that the tenant fanner was prosperous—surprisingly so, thought the Jsew calandeT. lint, then, the tenant was leasing liis land from the owner at less than half the I'e.il that was charged for it when Mr Pleasants \yas a lad ; and good Jabor was plentiful at from l;)s to 15s per week. It was the lord of the manor who was now doing the grumbling, for he was not receiving the income that he received from the land before the depression brought down the rents. Jiut there were signs of an upward tendency in rates, for free-hold prices were hardening.

How did farming in Norfolk compart. 1 with New Ze&hunl methods? "Why," replied the farmer from llalcombe,

•' they can still teach us things—they 1 know more than we do, I saw auo.'-' modern machinery, implement*, and appliances in use in [Norfolk t'Jwn X have ween in New Zealand. They are good farmers at llome, and they work their land well ; consequently, they grow ononnou* crop*. The fanning industry is certainly improving in England." Of course, as a sheep fanner, the New ZtttlaudcY gave some attention to studying the meat market at Home. In London ami in the provinces lie took particular notice of the contents of butchers' shops. There was mueli Now Zealand lamb and mutton sold as prime Jiuglish; and there was much from the North Island sold as " prime Canterbury.'' lie had taken the trouble to get the laMs oil' homo of our frozen produce retailed at Home, and had brought Ihem backas proof Hint much double dealing was going oil. " Why don't you advertise it as New Zealand produce V' he asked one butcher. " That wouldn't do," way the reply ; " for there is too great a prejudice against the frozen article. I have to Hell it as Knglish mutton." Mr Pleasants saw a shop full of New Zea-J land lamb and mutton in King's Lynn. Norfolk, ile went into the shop a'nd examined the labels, and found that that menfc was frozen in the Wanganui works. He foiaul similar labels onsomo boei'. Nearly wry shop that advertised the sale of New eaiand lambs and mutton called in prime Canterbury, M hen the critic went into the shopsill London and elsewhere—to examhn the produce be found tags which showed that it had bi'en frozen at Longburn, Wanganui, JVlone, and Ngahaunmga. •" I I nought >e\-Mra't legs of Now Zealand lamb at Sd j»er lb in serious towns and some* mutton from 4'/,d to fid per lb. When tile people with whom T was staying cooked the meat, they admitted that it was as sweet and juicy as they coitlfl wish, it's nothing hut English j pi ejndice that stands in the wav of our produce at Home. ' t