AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1079, 6 March 1883, Page 3

AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, Having advertised in your columns my appointment as agent for New Zealand for Messrs Woolnongh and Co.’s celebrated Corn and Seed Drills, so well known and appreciated in all European agricultural countries, I think a few remarks may be interesting to most of your readers in this extensive and over-growing agricultural district. As far as some of the general advantages of these drills go, I think there are very few who have not either tested them or witnessed the trials of other farmers during the past eighteen years. It was i.i 1865 that I commenced to work the first- (it is seme satisfaction to know that the same has been working every year since, and the present owner is not in need of a new one yet)—and I was soon persuaded by the steadily increasing number of fanners to import more, and thus give all who wished a chance to drill their corn, which was generally the old line of wheat, oats, and a little barley. One moat important crop for which these drills were particularly adapted was, and still is, almost entirely overlooked. 1 refer to horse beans, winter and spring, although I prefer the former for more abundant yield and early harvest. Winter beans should be drilled in April, and I should prefer a wheat stubble, after lea or virgin crop. As beans require hoeing, it is advisable to drill them 2ft between rows, and thus facilitate the thorough cleaning of them, with the horse hot. This will

insure tho padding of them within a few inches of the ground, ami will repay the grower, not only in the abundance of yield, but in a clean seed bed for succeed ing crop. The bean has a long tap-root and, like the cane grass, pcuelrates the strongest subsoils, bringing to the surface many mineral properties especially beneficial to wheat, which, as a rule, in many counties of England always succeeds it, although it is equally adapted for other crops if preferred. The stubble and root is a warming and excellent manure for the succeeding crop ; the haulm, or straw, makes the best of litter for all kinds of stock, and store cattle consume a considerable quantity of it when feed is short in winter. The seed required is about bushels for winter, and 2 bushels for spring, beans. If put in on good average land (heavy preferred) in April, the former will yield fiom 80 to 100 bushels per acre, with proper treatment. I have this year witnessed one paddock, in which from scarcity of seed only half the quantity was drilled in June last, producing 52 bushels per acre. April beans will, with our average seasons, be ready for harvesting by the end of December, it’or export they rank next to wheat, viz., from 40s to 44s per quarter in London. I have been informed that a parcel of Canterbury beans realised tho highest price in Mark Lane last year. Another great advantage is that, although it can be cut before any other crop, when once in the stock the bean can be left without danger till all the other crops are safe, as it is the most impervious of all to rain. Without touching on the great advantage of drilling root crops for the purpose of cleaning land, and growing on tens what it takes hundreds to produce, I have one topic which I think may interest many of cur enterprising neighbors. On becoming convinced that the flax industry for linseed and fibre was an established face at Temukn, I corresponded with my principals, whose agency I had just accepted, recommending them to ship out a few drills of a lighter class, specially sifited for linseed or other small seeds, which require to be drilled about 3to 3£ inches apart, and $ to | inch in depth. My answer received was to the effect that f could be supplied with double cast shoes, suited to all iheir corn drills, to use in place of the ordinary ones when required, and thus transform an ordinary 13 row corn drill into one of 26 rows. These were patented by them for their German trade some few years since This equal distribution of seed is most beneficial as regards the equality of growth in straw as well as the yield of seed. I may mention that these double shoes, or points, are not supplied with drills, except specially ordered. My first arrivals, expected daily, are limited iu number ; and, as some are bespoken, 1 should recommend early application to those anxious to secure for winter crops. —I am, etc,,

Edw, Pilbbow. The Willows, Ternuka, 3rd March, 1883.