A SOUTH AFRICAN CURIOSITY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8345, 30 January 1907, Page 6

A SOUTH AFRICAN CURIOSITY.

+ / AN INTERESTING LETTER. A Wairarapa settler, who has had twenty years farming experience in South Africa, has received the following letter from a relative in Capetown, who it will be noted is anxious to learn a "few" details about New Zealand. The settler'in question is delighted with the .agricultural and pastoral conditions obtaining in this country, and speaks very unfavourably of the agriculturists' prospects , in South Africa, owing to the frequent and long- Noughts which are experienced. '' How . the ] dickens do you manage if you have any big job on, and can't get servants? and how on earth can mother and E-- do all the housework, I can't imagine. How would a woman manage if she had half a dozen youngsters, yourigest a few months, to manage everything herself; and nurse the babies? I supp'ose i people have to go without babies there. ; I can't imagine how you manage least six servants, unless you have very little todo. I have seven servants, hot including L , and they have to work jolly hard, or find myself losing time. . . . . . When are you going to write and give me some interesting news? How many paddocks the .farm is fenced in? How many sheep you have? How many fowls,, horses, carts, pigs, pigeons, cows, oxen, goats, ducks, geese, cream separators, churns, dairies, outhouses, gardens, trees, orchard, vineyard, rivers, fishing ponds, etc., etc., What class of sheep you breed, as well as all the other stock. How many pedigree rams, bulls, cows, etc. . How many different kinds of veldt, and bush you have, natural and cultivated. What kinds of grass you feed your sheep on in the summer, and winter, whether you make hay ornot, what kind of brak you have for the stock, natural or do you give them salt to lick, and where do you get the salt from? Have you any salt pans? Is the country mountainous in your part? Do you have brakes on the carts, what kind of carts are used mostly. What kind of waggons, whether they are drawn by oxen or horses? " If 6xen are yoked the same way as in this country? What do the people think of South Africa? Do they look upon it as a desert? Are the people very much up to'.date in their methods of cultivation and agriculture? Does every one make their own butter and use up-to-date machinery for the purpose. How much can you get on market for butter? What is the yield of milk per cow, on an average, and . what percentage of cream and butter can you get out of the milk? At what/age is an ox fit for the butcher, and what do they weigh on an average from 2-years -old upwards to full grown? How muchjis a fullgrown ox worth? How many cattle can you graze on the farm, if fully stocked with sheep, an how many sheep can the farm carry. How much cairyou get for mutton, on an average, per lb, and at what age is a wether fit for the butcher? If you

can answer these [few questions you ought to make a very interesting letter of it. I will give you another list of questions another time. Good graqious! I want to know a little about the country; you people don't seem to know how to tell it. I could tell you everything off pat, if you don't already know all about this country. A fine swarm of locusts is advancing on us, or was up till sunset. About four miles across and half a mile deep. The first appearance they have made this year here."