THE FUTURE OF FARMING.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VII, Issue 339, 18 March 1874, Page 3

THE FUTURE OF FARMING.

We extract the following article, on . .the above subject from a Scotch exchange. " The l Agricultural Interest", ia a timehonoured toast which is heard at , nearly eyery banquet of any importance throughout the country.. And it must be confepsed tb it 'th,ere.iß no interest worthy of grea'er resyect, and.no toast more entitled to public recognition than this ; yet, strange to say, there, ia no interest regarding which the public h;vs greater miscoueaptions, or towards whiph ( it shows more ind.fference. , ,The truth is, I the farmers, as a class, are a, body of. men so entirely devoted to one pursuit, and, so se.par- ; ated ffom other classes of the community that they have contracted certain prejudices, and certain ways of their' own, which do^ot, acirait of a very' close ' familiarity _ wjth the general public. To see them driving to market in^heir smart machines, or following' the kounda on horseback, one is apt to Suppose that there is no life 'sj enjoyable, or no qccupso profitable as that of a farmer. That it is enjoyable to the extent of tho freedom and fresh air which is inseparable from the occupation cannot be denied— (and- it is this, .perhaps, which induces so many shopkeepers and, others, who Lave saved a little money, to invest it in farming pursuits)— bu,t -it is another matter altogether when it co.mes to. the question of profit and loss. The day.

was, when fortunes could be made at .farming ; and the day has not yet'gone, whin, in many parts of the country, the same maystill be done. • But^t is undeniable that for* many years past this has been the exception and liofc the rule. In hundreds of instances,, men with large capitals have entered, upon very.prommuy fartfip/ana in a few years have come out of them with hardly a penny left ;to bless themselves. Nor has it always been bad management that has been the' cause of this, though it miist be admitted that in many instances it has; neither has bad weather been -always the cause of the mischief, though this^it must be confessed, has been a fruitful cause also. On the contrary, many have entered farming pursuits with every knowledge of the occupation, and with, every desire to bring their land to a high state of cultivation. They have expended large sums of money in draining, on artificial manures, and ( on the most improved farming implements '; and yet, Ions; before the termination of their leases, they have found themselves on the wrong side of the 1 ledger, And why this*? Simply because the morie'y invested and labour expended has failed to produce, a corresponding interest— in other words,' each 'year's expenditure has greatly exceededthe income. But how ?it may be asked- • Increased wages; dear nio, terial ba"d harvests, high taxes, and, and unremunerative prices, may, it is true, have done much to work the evil ; but we put 'it to the farmers themselves, if exorbitant rents and' undiie competition have not had more to do with their 'reverses than all these put together? As things go now-a-days, -is it not the fact that' there is hardly a fa"rm of any value at all, ad an agricultural subject',: in the'eountry but is. much too high rented, and even with the best cultivation,°incapable of making a profitable return ? ' Is it not 'the case, also, that displenishing sales are, in consequence, becoming more frequent every year, -while rents are still rising and competition is on the increase ? "We do not believe that landlords are the hard-hearted, avaricious, tyranieal class that they are U>o often represented to be. On the contrary, there are-many landlords liberal-minded- enough to do anything to assist a- struggling tenant, even to the extent of remitting a portion of his rent in bad years, But still the fact remains, that the number of farmers who go to the wall/ is every- year on the increase, while rents are steadily rising instead of falling, It is important, that the farming interest should be able to maintain the position which it has so long occupied, and that , it should retain the confidence and support of the public. But; in , order to .do this two things are necessary.. Ihe first is, that landing ukovJd not t as, many of them are doing, rack-rent their tenants, ana : tlie tenants- 1 should be cautious in taking farms at a price" which their former occupants failed to makeremunerative, It is only human nature for a landlord, when lie has two or three applications for a farm, to ask. more for it , thanit is really worth, and to give it to the highest bidder. He }><"» ±iio x-a wof Hypothec at his back to protect him, and he knows very well that come what may he is, secure of his rent, But is this hones ? Is 'it in accordance with the precept to "do unto others as yon would be done by ?'' It may be said that the farmer is himself the best judge of what the farm is worth. He ought to be but he is not. He can only tell what it is worth after tive or six years' experience, and then by that time he may have expended all his capital, and be turne 1 out of doors penniless by his .landlord. No ; a landlord's duty is not to extract the last pound of flesh from Ms tenaut, but to let his land at a rent which 5L.%11 give the tenant a fair return for his money, and at the same time prevent him from imp. noshing the ' land. ' ' Penny wise but pound foolish. " isjthe principle on which toa many landed proprietors in this country act Thy lct;their farms at high rents, they destroy the crops of their tenants by game preserving, and they express their suprise when a tenant has not the wltlial to pay his rent, .and give vent to thtdr indignation when they discover that he has been taking everthing out of the land and putting nothing into it

But the farmers, as We have indicated, are very much to blameiihemselves for this state of matters. Why give more for a farm than they know it is really worth? Why compete with each, other for land whicli they know has ne\er paid interest on the money which has been sunk on it ? When agriculcultural labourers are combining against them, why not combine against the landlords ?— not to get wages up certainly but to get'rents down. Why spend time, and labour , and capital, on another man's property, and get .nothing in the end for their pains ? Why not forsooth ?, Simply .because they want organising they want unity of purpose and' unity of action. It is every man's hand for himsolf among the farmers ? and rather thaii want a farm or offend a landlord, they" are willing to take it on any terms, 'and. spend their time and means in struggling to keep their hea jjpbove waber. The Law of ' Hypbtheoc, which protects the landlord, and gives him priority of claim in the event of the bankruptcy of the tenant, is.so,far injurious +" the practical-farmer, that it indu*?*- uian y men to compete 'for farms " u0 « mow no more about farming Uian the man in the moon ; and the consequence is, that rents are forced to. an unnatural height and the practical' farmer- has to suffer. Were' the the landlord to select Ms^enants, not on account "of the rents which they are prepared to give, but on account ■ of their practical knowledge of farming,' there wonld be fewer displenishing sales than' there-is!. > But as long as the landlord - looks more to the amout of rent which he is. to receiva for his farm, than to the capability of the tenant to work it well and make it pay, -and so long as the tenant is content to give any price for a farm that he knows 1 has never paid, not much improvement in tha farming interest , can be expected.

The following remarks with regard to a system of endeavoring to get work done for nothing, altliougli, made by. tike Wanganiri " Chronicle," are equally applicable to most New Zealand towns, — "t" t Our patience has been tried beyond endurance, and bur pockets have suffered severely by the propensity of certain people for getting advertißem'ents on ; the cheap.. The religious bodies • are tne ' principal] but not the' onty, offenders in this respect. A bazaar is to be held, the congregation is to be amused by a festivity in the sliapb of a tea meeting or otherwise, or Mr,, Smith, tlie missionary, is about to detail his' experiences' at Timbiiet o6, ariel for with we are called upon to publish the fact without' fee' 'or reward. Sometimes we are asked to do so in i the form of an advertisement ; sometimes of ; a local paragraph ; but" in either case the terms offered are the same — a gratuitous announcement. _ This statement, however, must be 'qualified a little. We are nosy and then offered a third, or, when the applicants are of a liberal dispositin,- half the usual charge. The plea is — 'The 'congregation is poor.' — No doubt, but we are poorer ; and we d.o •most solemnly assure- tho Jgentlemen tliat-. f OV every lino of matter ••-. liiok appears i;i the- " Chrouicljß,", we have to, pay compositors to isat it, pressmen to print it, the stationer for paper todmprtjps it upon, andi in addition, we > Hare to pay manifold other expensed in the shape of rent, insurance, lighting, wear and tear of type and so forth ; and the whole of tn'em too in downright hard cash. We may be'poor, but o"i* compositors do not care one jot — tney will have there wages or else they will not wovk. Our stationer, although believing in charity in the abstract, never supplies paper on those terms ; iv short, we ; cannot carry on our business without money*.' 1 We really 'hope our friends will take these remarks in good part, and act' upon them. A newspaper is a. commercial speculation, arid" if it is to exist at all, must at least pay its working expenses.'* '"

- Proprietor.

Proprietor.