THE PASTORAL INDUSTRY.

Waikato Argus, Volume I, Issue 34, 26 September 1896, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE PASTORAL INDUSTRY.

The proper care and feeding of sheep is not a difficult matter involving the application of much scientific knowledge. Kvery man knows that if there is plenty of gi oil grass in ;i paddock the sheep will generally thrive on it, and every owner of sheep also knows that turnips and dry food go well together ; but after having I'iown the teed, the great thing is to see that the mistake is not mule of trying to feed three sheep on a food supply only sufficient for two. Two well led shop will give more piofit than three under fed ones. " The writer of this paper once knew a sheep fanner who whenever he placed a flock of sheep in a paddock always formed an estimate as to how long that paddock ought to keep that number of sheep, and no matter whether the feed came up to the estimate or not the sheep had to stiy the allotted time. This was methodical, but not really practical management, and it is scirccly necessary to add that the farm fell ultimately into the hands of the mortgagee. One often hears the remark that certain land will keep so many sheep to the acre, or that so many acres will keep so many sheep. The carrying capacity of land' in native pasture incapable of etiltiva' ion, may 1)3 stated iu this way with tolerable accuracy, but, with regard to land fit for cultivation, its carrying capacity depends largely on the amount of work that is put into it. Take, for example, a hundred acres of medium land, and compare what slock it will keep under old grass with what it will do with a fairly good crop of turnips on it.. And compare again what the same land Mill keep during the first two or three years it is under grass to the second two or three years. Land that will keep two or tlncc sheep to the acre the first two or years will dwindle away to not more than a sheep to the acre in the course <j f five or six years, unless the grass is in the meantime renewed. We are gradually learning the lesson that early maturity and quick returns are till important ; and WC are also finding out the truth of the late Mr Mechi's maxim, that the more: meat you grow the more grain will you be able to produce. All this, of course, means mure intensified farming. In order that sheep may be brought to maturity early, a sufficient supply of feed the year round is essential. Jf a flock-owner half starved his hoggets during the first winter of their lives he cannot expect them to make good full weight freezers during the second winter. And if the ewe Hock is in low condition it is hardly likely he will be successful in the matter of fat lambs. It. is a well established fact that sheep as well as other animals do the most profitable part of their growing during the earlier month of their time. and therefore it is obvious that sheepfarming to be profitable must depend largely on rluc provision being made for the young stock. The want of proper provisions being made for the lambs, ewes, and for the lambs at weaning is the weakest point in the general sheep manaceinent of this country. Farmers depend altogether too much on the early spring growth of grass for the ewes and lambs. The feed upon which the ewes depend, whether turnips or grass, gene:ally runs out about the end of tie winter, if not a good while before tint, and taking the

general run of the country, there is seldom any substantial growth of newgrass till the end of September, and the result is that the ewes, immediately before and during lambing, arc in a state of semi-starvation. This is a thoroughly bad state of affairs, and strikes at, the ve>y foundation of the sheep growirg industry, A satisfactory' lambing and a fl.-tirisbiiig lot of liunbs cannot be expected under such citeum-tanee.,, to say nothing of the inevitable mortality amongst the ewes. A sufficiency, or even a superabundance of feed later on. docs not make up for the want of feed at the most critical period, There is an old saying tint a sheep beguiling the winter in good condition is half-wintered, and it is very true. Oct the ewes in good condition in the autumn and they will pull through the winter fairly well, if they only e;ct half a chance iu the way of feed, but good autumn condition will not cany them into the spring It is at the end of the winter and towards lambing time when the reserve feed should come in. Much necessarily depends em the seasons, but generally speaking there is no reason why adequate provision should not be made for the ewes and limbs in the eirly spring. There are various green crops suitable for the purpose, and wl.ieh, with good autumn cultiuatioii, together with the judicious use of artificial fertilisers, can usually be depended on for a fairly good t/rowth. As the country becomes more thickly populated the natural tendency is in the direction of smaller holdings, and if agriculture is to be a thriving industry, with smaller holdings must, come a more intensified system ol farming. The tun things do not however, always go log: titer. Small holdings uv« not unfrcqiiently found associated with exhaustive cultivation, a contingency which the Coverniuent in its capacity of lamllo'd of a large number of small farmers will find it very necessary to bear ill mind. The cutting up of many large estates into farms shoul 1. if those funis were properly managed and cultivated, add largely to the output of wool and mutton, but it is to be feared the tendency will be largely in the direction of grain growing which holds out the promise, though u promise is not always fultiled, of more immediate and larger returns. With our present outlet for frozen mutton, and especially for lamb, there are great possibilities for sheep farming on restricted holdings. To the small sheep-fanners wool growing must, be a a subsidary consideration ; his main profit, must, come from fat Limbs, lu fat lambs New /.calami holds a sort, of monopoly, that is, in fat Limb of the first class, niiei every effort should be made to retain the leading position in thai important ami profitable ,',ranch of the frozen meal, industry. Tho best lambs should, and perhaps, genera'ly do come from the' smaller (locks, lint il a farmer is to fell more than a small precon!age of his lambs as freezers he must make special efforts to grow suitable feed at proper linns. 1 u favourable seasons, and with good luck, :i considerable number of lambs may becon c lit for the freezing chamber, and the best of the year's protit < w ill be missed. A fat lamb being the most profitable Hung that the farmer civil produce ii is surely worth while going tu trouble and expense to grow it.

A farmer of limited holding should bear in mind that green crops, all things taken into consideration, are the most economical of crops to grow. In most cases, it is'.ti ue, they involve more outlay in artificial manure, but then, apart from their direct feeding value, they enrich the land so much for succeeding grain crops, that with a fair degree of luck its to the seasons, it is a question whether the indirect returns alone do not pay for the cost of growing. The outlet for mutton and lamb, low as the price may be, gives us advantages in farm management which farmers fifteen or twenty years ago were altogether without. Thorois no need now to let land ho in grass or what passes muster for such, till the returns from it taper away to a vanishing point. Neither is there any need for over straining the hind with successive grain crops. A complete system of rotation may not be possible, but nevertheless an intelligent recuperative rotation is well within reach.

It is a common and very bad custom with relatively sniall farmers entering on a block of land to sow (ho greater part of their holdings to grain crops the first } ear, or the first two years, in the hope of setting themselves on their legs by a good Inrve.st. If a good harvest were a certainty this would be a very questionable proceeding, but harvests being the most uncertain things iu the world, it is extremely bad management. Much necessarily depends on the quality of the hind, but in general, not more than one-fomth of a farm should bo under gr.iin iu any ono year otherwise, it means that either the hind will be exhausted by too much crjppiug, and that there must, be an ensuing period of poor returns; or a Urge breadth of grain must bo followed by a correspondingly largo extent, of root and forage crops so that whether under straw or green crop, there are 100 many eggs iu one basket. Much of the bail farming that goes on is due to want, or capital, but lack of means is not by any melius Iho only bar to good farming, for it may bo said without hesitation that much of the bad farming is due to want of experience and want of intelligence, and perhaps also it may be added want of industry. It has been said and with a great ileal of truth, that the fir t and most import nit step 1) wards the effective cultivation of the land is the cultivation of the bruins of these who occupy it "Ovis," in N.X. Country Journal.