CHATS WITH THE FARMERS. [By our Travelling Reporter.]

Waikato Times, Volume XVII, Issue 1439, 22 September 1881, Page 4

CHATS WITH THE FARMERS. [By our Travelling Reporter.]

No. in, , Messrs Bosanco Bros.' Property. Therk is a pretty road out of Te Awamutu, between tall hedges of whitethorn, that in another month will be covered with delicate blossom and bathing the whole country in spicy odors, and bordered here and there with blazing golden clumps of swcettsconted gorse— poor, rough and tough old reprobate, always breaking loose and starting un his own account on his master's lands, though a better servant never lived if lie is only kept in his place, and such a handsome fellow too ! and always contented witli his lot till the spirit moves him to rove again. Here on the one side may be seen some beautiful paddocks covered with contented kine (to use the good old English word), and the grass is a beautiful bright green, and looks so fresh and cool that it makes one long almost to go down on his hands and knees, and do an extempore salad along with one's humble brothers. It would be a much more blessed lot than having to fester in the back slums of a big town or join the 'orny-'anded in beer and curses. Across these scented paddocks, redolent of hay and fcho agreeable bucolic aroma of flocks and herds, I took a stroll, though to my sorrow their owners have a superstitious dread of being " printed, " not altogether unnatural, considering the good taste and high principles of some members of the New Zealand Press, from whom they may have formed their impressions of the whole profession. A bibulous Paul Pry, generally more drunk than sober, prowling about the back yard, and accosting the owner as " old feller," and requesting him in the first place to bring out his grog, as he has como to ohove bis old chanty into print and informing him on parting that if he " blows hitn 'ard enough he shall expect a couple of notes orf him," is certainly not a character to inspire confidence or pleasure. But I wanted to see two equine gentlemen across here on my own account and enjoyed a stroll over the springy gruss as niudi as if it had been my own. Presently, I caiue to a fence over which a remarkably tall good looking gentleman on four legs was shaking his head at me with fiiendly saint itions, and with a broad smile on his ingenuous countenance and rumbling inward chuckles of delight was making pirouettos every five minute* and then trottiug up, and shaking his head again. I know better what he meant to say than I have otten found )t possible to do with tome of our M.H.R's. and as I got through the fence he placed himself alongside of mo and his nose in my h-md with all the expression of a friendly biped swell, j:liid to qe 1 . someone to talk to. " There mj r buy, there's a shoulder for you ; just measure how many hands that is. "Where will you bee a leg like that, eh ? and if you want a loin, my boy, here jou are— como to this shop. Alia ! (yon don't sco hindquarters like these every day, cli ? Now, you want to bee me trot round, don't you ; very well, here you are then," and my friend trotted round and executed another pirouette, and came up to me again with "What do you think of my friend ? Don't see many heads like that in your day's journey, I'll swear, not even when you look in your glass, aha? and just look at my coat now ; no slop tailoung about that, eh ?" and then lie did another pnouette, and made believe he was going to kick my biams out just to take a rise out of me, but he did nt mean anything bo uncivil, and was. only doing a breakdown to show what a high-spirited captivating sort of lady-killer lie was. This bclf-satisfied young fellow A\as, in fact, a fine Clydesdale young stallion of grand bone and shape, and coming of very good family, and as he veiy well knew as handsome a fellow as could be found in the wliolc country side. As lam only satisfying my own appreciation of his good points, I won't My anything more about him, but his fine manly sort of way, his good looks, and the cordial feeling with which he presented his nose at parting made me his friend for ever. In another paddock near another young giant of rather corpulent tendency was keeping himself down, and sternly doing his morning's gymnastic exercise, regardless of the fact that he was about as well suited for racing as a London Alderman would be, and that he was in a regular lather of perspiration with such a remarkable activity. Thundering round the paddock and making the ground tremble witli his weight, and then flinging up his heels in all directions at once, and then dancing sideways in what he meant to be a giaceful imitation of Queen Mab dancing to her shadow, he put himself in such a state of out-of-breatlilinass that he w.as soon obliged to conic up and make my acquaintance. " Well old man, what would you give to be able to dunce in that style, eh ? Rather neat, I flatter myself. Well, you see, lam rather a fleshy "-ort ol fellow, all our family are, and I really am ashamed to confess that I have been wiring into my tucker rather too cxtensivly lately— aw ful good fellow, my bo'-s you know, regular good fellow ali over— so you see I take it out of myself in this way ; but you won't find find such a good dancer or such a good-looking chap as me every day, "u ill you ? My name's Kantin Robin, what's yours? Come in and do a peck of oats with me, and then you can admire me as much as you please. Come along ■/' and then he turned himself about m his drawingroom, caipeted with sweet hay, and made mo quite at home while I admired him humbly. This is one of the Clydesdale blue bloods, also, and a remarkably aiistociatic kind of customei he is too, with a figtuc that he and all who know him equally admit c. There is a slight degiee of lonian nose, and a whiteness about the face in him that speak of nobility, but his physique is magnificent. He is a giant who looks small by the compactness and good proportion of his build, and theie is a good-tempeied kittenish sort of playfulness about him that would make him a pet anywhere. If he were my friend I would make him follow me like a dog, and go out shooting with me, and I am sure he w ould learn to set, or point, or letrieve, cr play Avith the babies, or go down to the post office to fetch the mail bag, or anything else. Having shaken hands and notes with these two young gentlemen, on whom I just made a morning call in passing, I made my way to Mr Bosnnco's, a little further along the road. Mr Bosanoo owns 700 acies, GOO of which aie in grass ; and for position, just close to the township and near the railway station ; and for quality of the land, stretching down to the Punm river in pen tie slopes and broad flats, this farm could not be beaten in. the district. The land is of the quality I have admired so much about the district generally, a ri>h deep loam, easily worked and immensely fer- , tile, On the slopes, and in the flats a deep peat thut only wants a little draining and sweetening to convert it into a hot bed for grass and dlover, or sometimes an alluvial deposit on a subsoil of good clay that would turn out 50 and 60 bushels of wheat to the acre. Great returns for the amount sown have been made from several pieces of the land both in root and grain crops,, Although there will be 5o acres broken up for potatoes find turnips thisFenson, there will not be imy devoted to ciop* of grain for the

owners consider thpt their cattle and sheep will return more profit than grain. A country like ,thjs certainly is more eminently 'fitted for pristbrot farming than for heavy cropping. Farms not ; over large, with owners who have not a large' capital to invest in the labour and preparation for grain crops, or to afford tbe (selection of their own'maiket for the sale of the produce, would always do better in the produce of butter and cheese and beef, mutton and wool, arid no parts of Devonshire or Cheshire would boat Some of the Waipa lands as dairy farmq, or the butter and cheese that comes from it. There are about 150 head of cattle on this pioperty in summer titne, fattening generally for t;ie Auckland market, and at the time of my visit, though it was in the poorest season of the who^le year, some of the stock were „ia» Verj£ good condition or about half fattened) arid the young grass springing in some of the paddocks, though not sown more than eight or nine months, showed what they ' might be expected to become in a few weeks. Some 600 sheep of the nearly pure Lincoln breed and the lamba seemed to be all doing capitally, and revelling in the mild seaion". The Lincoln breed seems to bo universally the favourite for sheep in this North Island as the Merino is in Canterbury and Otago, and there is no doubt that the breed offers advantages over almost any other for these parts. The Romney Marsh, however, a fine old breed of longwools from the County of Kent, has been tried about Wanganui, and here and there in other parts, and has been universally admired as a cross with the Leicester or Lincoln. It has'for ages occupied the locality that gives it its name, and is famous for its hardiness and its capability of thriving with close stocking of the ground, and for its excellent wool. They aie very heaity aiul require no artificial food, and the wethers a7crage at 3 years old from 10 to 12 stone in England, the fleece weighing about 71bs. A cross with the Lincoln improves the fineness of the wool and hardens tho latter breed, whera it is advisable to do so, better than the fat, burdened, and delicate Leicester. Messrs Bosanco have very pleasant, cool plantations of pines, sunny, sheltered orchards, and a bright garden round their abode, and amongst the young fruit trees I noticed several in vigoiousbudaweekortwoago, that doubtless now are in full leaf. Nature does not take a very long winter holiday in these parts, and is already decking herself out in her most giaceful and fascinating spring costume, with all the latest improvements, and apples and pears, peaches, plums, and cherries are all dedicating their latest born to the seivice of Her Ladyship already. Mr Bosanco is one of the settlers of the district who anticipates the best results fioin a systematic culture of the beet-root for sugar upon land so peculiarly suited for it as that of the Waipa, and he would, I am sure, ]oiii heartily in advocating and promoting any sensible scheme for establishing the undertaking on a wide scale. To anyone possessing the by no means general faculty of seeing further than the end of his nose, there is a prospect presented in the scheme of an object to the farmers in breaking up their land and actively working, that growing wheat alone does not yet sufficiently furnish, anil c\ en if no more were accomplished this alone would be an immense step in advance.