CORRESPONDENCE. [We do not necessarily endorse the opinions expressed by our correspondents.] (To the Editor of the Waikato Times.)

Waikato Times, Volume VII, Issue 359, 1 September 1874, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE. [We do not necessarily endorse the opinions expressed by our correspondents.] (To the Editor of the Waikato Times.)

Sir, — The universal outcry of the farmer is how to destroy insects, caterpillars, crickets, slug?, &c. Many of us call ourselves farmers, which I say we are not. "We put, in our grass and exppct the land by lying in grass to brtome richer; this I consider a great error, as e\ery bullock I hut is fattened and ■'cut oil the rim makes it poorer, buttkit cannot be helped, but what can be done is to make the be-t use of what he has left behind him, by spreading the manine over the paddock he has been fed upon. This can be done once a year for GVd per acre, and if this be not clone, tlie manure he leaves does barm rather than good ; it lies in a dry heap and prevents vegetation on the spot where it lies and causes tufty pasture and encourages insects. Although none may be apparent in the winter, if the droppings ;iro turned over, there mil be found 'caterpillars, crickets, and their eggs, hatching to destroy the gras* and other cro| u in the Spring. If the droppings were spread in the month- >>f June, July, and August, the inaecti sheltered under thi'm would be destroy pel and the rain would dissolve the manure so that the plants would absolve the nourishment they require. I believe that a farmer cannot calculate how many more stock he can keep if this wero done, for the quantity consumed by insects in the Summer is almost as great as that eaten by his stock ; and after being eaten by insects either never recover*, or does so so slowly that the Winter sets in before it lins made much growth. He must, therefore, either lessen the number of his stock or have them in poor condition. I now give the mode of spreading the manure at the low price mentioned above. Three horses at 2s 6d each for wear and tear, 7s 6d ; one man at 53 ; total, 12s Gd per day, and a 12 loot fletible harrow will harrow from 20 to 25 acres per day. This has been a theory of mine for some years, but I have only been able as vet to partially carry it into effect. I have this season got over 300 head off my farm. I purpose harrowing my farm every winter, especially as I do not intend that anything shall leave it that cannot travel to market without being carted. I think that if many more farmers would adopt this system, and do a little more than they have done to introduce birds that a great deal of the insect plague would be got T [^ o f_ j waB agreeably surprised m the ejirty part of last Summer to see loads of oaten hay, from vanous places near Auckland, which had all the flag on the stalk. Some years ago, you could hardly find any place here the lower leaves at least were not stripped off, in fact, the only field of oats I ever saw in this province up to 1866 was in Cambridge. If thought at that time that Waikato would grow oats to compete with the South. I account for the undamaged state of the loads of hay I have alluded to by the fact that small birds aro now very numerous near Auckland. Colonial Farmer.