A NORTHERN OPINION OF SOUTHERN FARMERS.

Temuka Leader, Volume I, Issue 99, 27 November 1878, Page 2

A NORTHERN OPINION OF SOUTHERN FARMERS.

The following portion of Mr C. Firth's speech at the dinner of the Auckland Agricultural and Pastoral Association is worth the attention of Agriculturists in this district :

I think it is not so well to have to import things which we can produce in this country. If we can produce them, we ought to make every effort in that direction. Il ; we find, as many of us probably do at one time or other, that as agriculturists or commercial men we are seeking abroad for what we can have at home, with very little trouble and forethought, then I say we know our business but imperfectly. If the agriculturist does not direct his attention to the obligation upon him to produce sufficient, if possible, to supply his own market, "he is committing a great mistake, and he is becoming dependent, more or less, upon the commercial class. The mercantile man will, as a necessity of his position, import that wliich is asked for, which he knows to be required, and he will exercise all his skill and intelligence to discover what these things are. lam not here to pay undeserved compliments. I am about to speak a few words which I conceive to be plain truth. Ido not wish to offend anyone, but you must give me the right to offer a little wholesome avice. If we see here horse feed, ami other things which we are obliged to send for elsewhere, that, I humbly think, is a fact which should not be allowed to exist, if we wish this part of the country to increase in prosperity. [Hear, hear.] lam not going to flaunt in your faces the superior achievements of our Southern fellow colonists. With good land, they have found no difficulty in supplying their markets, and send a surplus off to England. During a tour I lately made in the South, crops were pointed out to me averaging ( wheat) at from thirty to forty bushels, and in some cases more, to the acre. Oats there appear to be a particularly profitable crop, averaging from fifty to sixty, and some land from sixty even to seventy bushels to the acre. But very little is required of the Southern farmer to grow very large crops on his land. I must, at tue same time, say that while tue South bears away the palm for greater fertility „f soil, it by no means bears away the palm—nor is even deserving of it—for good agriculture. I think that our Southern friends are very slovenly farmers, indeed. If they had to cultivate the sort of land which you have to cultivate, they would have provided a much worse show than we have seen today. The truth is, there is no difficulty in farming, or in making a farm pay, down South. Toe slovenly farmer can ♦■• Mere get good results for a time, at all t/'flflts. But here the nature of the soil, , and the character of the prior vegetation I which it produced, rfquhe something more, and something very different, from .-lovei.ly fanning. It requires a higher degree of skill, and the judicious expenditure of more or less capital. The requisite skill implies the knowledge to use it. [Hear, hear.] I be'ieve that agrh-ul-tur.d knowledge is beginning to permeate the agricultmal class. It should seem to them to be i-.dispensable for the attainment of the best resn!t from their labor and capital. I am much pleased to bo to say th it upon a visit to sev-ral agricultural 'lisfricts Lit ly, I saw the evidence of very great progress. Everywhere I saw excellent crops of Wheat, giving promise of abundant returns. I saw signs of good and careful farming, which 1 had not hitherto seen in thb province. I think our farmers are beginning to realise the fict that while they have good markets for -"heat and grain crops, it is necessity to npp'y their intelligence to the rotation of crops as a process for the relief and the stimulation of the soil accordingly as either may be most desirable.