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

Waikato Times, Volume XVII, Issue 1441, 27 September 1881, Page 2

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

No. IV. Captain Bocketts Property. The road from Te Awamufcn to Jlangiaoina traveises some beautiful lands, gently sloping down to a broad plain on one side, and undulating, with a few feet of rise and fall to every fifty acres or so on the other, and a little lower lie the townships of Te Awamutu and Kihikihi, looking bright and cheerful across the fresh green paddocks that are spreading rapidly, year by year, over the brown fern and ti-tree scrub that have covered the land for ages. Along the different road lines branching about the country, the dark green plantations of pines and gum trees enclose a comfortable-looking cottage and garden at every mile or two, where the different settlers have made their homes, and far away, beyond the Puniu and the Pirongia lange and lound to the Maungatciurari range stretches the broad unexplored Maori territory, that has been rather a sealed book to Europeans for so long, though it will have to yield up its riches to the resistless flood of advancing emigration now, and as Tnwhiao has tasted the pleasures, dangerous enough, perhaps, for him, of civilized life, and he will find his old seclusion impossible again, it is to be hoped that arrangements will be made for the benefit of both races, wheieby the necessary work may be done without trickery cm the one side, aud misery and dissatisfaction on the other. Here and there along the roads rare old peach and almond groves, now covered with pink blossom, and plantations of bright green willow trees, acacias, ash, and iv some places cherries, plums, apples, and quinces, grown into forest trees, dot the landscape and mark the site^ of the numerous pahs of the natives in the days before 1804 when they weve thickly settled on this their favourite and choicest district. Those old savage 3 as they may be contemptuously named by men who are not their superiors in many good qualities knew where to select the best of their lands for their settlements; and had a keen appreciation of Ithe beauties of nature and must have led a by no means so degraded life as some represent in their pleasant fruit groves, and the facts thar they owned four flour mills with water power in different parts of the di&trict, and built the two large churches stili used by their successors afc Rangiaohia, and thafc the settlers who remember those old times say they have seen as many as 2000 people attending and waiting their turn for admission to the Roman Catholic Church at one time, speak well for their industry and perhaps for their piety. The mills were destroyed in the war,' and all who meet them now know that whatever enthusiasm for Christianity and civilization that may have animated the Maori then is pretty well extinct now. The first large estate on the road is that which formerly belonged to Major Jackson. It is a very fine piece of land of about 800 acres, and the extensive plantations of every variety uf pine and cypress, including the graceful " Lawsoniana," the " Diodara," the " Maorocarpa," and the lofty " Insignis" that surround the house with shady groves and avenues, and warm, shelter from any occasional gale, would make it a charming- and stately site for a mansion. In the garden I noticed some beautiful camellias covered with splendid blossoms of every shade, from dark crimson to the purest white, perfect pyramids of flowers that from their very profusion could only fall in scores to the ground and rot without notice. I was not able to go over the property, and kept on my way. Turning to the right when near Rangiaohia, the road branches through a district known to the Maoris as Paikuku, the name signifying " good pigeon," the neighbourhood having formerly been distinguished by some strips of heavy bush, in which probably the large Maori * pigeons were plentiful. The firat farm on this road belongs to Mr Andrew Kamaay, and I shall have the pleasure of describing it in my next. On the other aide of the rgadlieSj some lanel belonging to Mr .Cifmrd/and "then" passing over some springy grass that'tne traffio Km not worn

away on this road, and between some grand hedges of whitethorn, I came td some extensive plantations of blue gum, and an avenue of well grown young deciduous trees, that I found were the eastern plane, imported from Sydney, leading from the gate towards the house. The air was powerfully scented with the rich perfume of some flowers, and I looked round for the Australian wattle, bufc there was none about, the camellias round the quiet shaded lawn, bright and perfect as they might be in colour and shape were unfortunately scentless, chaste and cold and pure from voluptuousness as Diana herself, if all the roses in the garden had been in full bloom they could not have impregnated the atmosphere with such a load of perfume as that which made tho whole garden and shrubbery languid, but presently I came upon the origin of all the abounding sweets, in a totally new idea for me at all events. At each end of the verandah in front of the house, stood a tree of some forty feet m height, literally covered from the top to the ground with large flowers shaped and coloured like a large delicate tinted tulip shedding all these overpowering waves of perfume, that seemingly attracted all the boes of the district, judging from the thousands that swarmed busily around. The house I learned is Captain Bocketts, and the wonderful flower is the magnolia, a Japanese variety that flowers before it bears its leaves, being eccentric in its design liko everything else that comos from that wonderful country. The soft smooth lawn studded with broad spreading pines and cedars, and surrounded by beds of choice flowers would be a delicious spot to Tennysou or Wordsworth musing on the depth and subtleties of nature, or Horace gaily singing the f atility of human wishes and the advisability of gathering rosebuds whilo ye may, as tomorrow ye may die, and have to resign ■what is a remarkably good billet to some people. This estate that includes altogether about 600 acres, is on the road that runs between Te Awamutu and Orakau, and for about a mile and a half along the bank of the Mangahoi creok or small river. The land lies in the rolling Blopes and flats that chai-acterise the whole country about here, broad levels perhaps here absorbing tho greater pait. Tho soil of the slopes is tho usual deep, rich, easily worked loam, and the flats are foimed of a stiffer and more tenacious subsoil with a deep deposit of ages of decayed vegetable matter on the sin face, that no fanner will require telling will form the most valuable of all land when properly drained, gradually sweetened, and brought into working order. Even pure swamps of peat, extending over 20 miles of ground, lichly lepay the great outlay required for draining them, and e\cn in a state of nature afford an amount of feed for certain seasons that livals all the efforts of the most scientific farmers. Much more will these beautiful little sheltered flats realise, all that an English fanner looks for in the selection of his land. Of course they are not tho most favored by the easy-going farmeis of these parts, who much prefer turning over the rich soil of the slopes that wants no draining ; but when once these slopes are obliged to be tackled with energy and system they will prove themselves by far the best land in the district, and will carry grass ,vnd clover and crops of grain that will defy competition. There will be a certain veiy modeiate amount ot expenditure required in getting them in order, and that is why their owneis will give them the cold shoulder as long as they can find plenty of land that will do as well without any outlay. All Captain Bocketts a\ ailable land is laid down in glass, some has been twice laid down, and some lids been cropped several times. He lias never jet tried wheat to any extent since the old times when caterpillai s were accustomed to walk off with a lipening ciop of wheat or barley w ithm a week or two of the anticipated harvest, and m 48 hours lob the fanner perhaps of hundicds or thousands of pounds. The spai row was the saviour from this pest, and with tine human gratitude the farmer, instead of making a saint of him, wants to punch his head, and poisons him, bangs at linn, and curses him in e\ eiy note in the gamut. The land lias been more used for root crops of the vauous kinds. Some fine mangolds, some of which weighed ,'JOlbs., wore more particulaily mentioned, and one paddock was pointed out that earned 13 tons of potatoes to the aci c, with no manure but the ashes of the bush with \\ Inch the land was originally covered. iSotnc of tho paddocks have had no sowing of thengrass since lSb'6, and certainly they did not show any symptoms of "running out." Some otheis, more especially one of 17 acres, sown in "cocksfoot" only, and of about seven years' growth, and another of 35 acres of the same grass, feeemed as good as could possibly be desired, and showed no signs of the fault which I have heard other farmers about here attubute to cocksfoot, namely, a tendency to grow m coaise tufts. Another small paddock of young grass, annual rye, and alsyke, sown last spring, made a lemaikably good show, though it has been fed off all the winter. About 12 acres sown with last season's tin nips, and consisting of annual and perennial rye grasses, were paitioularly flouiishing. The crops for this season will consist of 12 acres of oaten hay, four or five acres of potatoes, and in the season 25 acres of turnips. Theic are about 100 head ot cattle on the place of the Hereford breed. A bull of Maclean's herd is a very fine animal, and some of his calves are worthy of a place in the next Te Awamutu Agricultural Show. The number of sheej} is geneially about 700, but at the time of my visit the flock did not exceed some 250. The quality, however, makes up for the small quantity, for the bieed is a very pure Lincoln, and i-ome of the rams of Ru«sell's breed cost £25 pound apiece. The wool and the fino shapely make of tho few that I saw equalled any that I have seen about these parts. The sheep rcareis must sigh for the price their wool has fetched in some past years huch as 1872 for instance, when I am told as much as Is 9|d per lb. was realised but still there nvf many worse sources of income than a good flock of Leicesrcrs or I<incolnH, and when <i farmer makes up his books (" Do farmers ever keep books about here by the bye ?") he iniirht fin^d a consolation for his many trials and troubles in a tidy shearing. Perhaps there are too many small agents and active business men knocking about and making a living out of the profits that flhould go to the farmer if he were better able to study his interests as a rule, but still there are many small sources through which a good income may trickle in to tho owner of a large farm, and I can't help thinking that such a man ought to have very little to complain of. I have often tried Captain Bocketts cheese before T had the pleasure of meeting him, and have always found it such as my soul loveth, dry, sweet flavoured, and rich as that of old Cheshire, such as our wise forefathers took a taste of with a glass of 20-year-old port, just to digest their dinner, and I was not surprised to find an elaborately fitted dairy with a double roof, a concrete , floor, and patent blinds, cool and clean and sweet ; and also a cheese room fitted with shelves, and a screw press by Carson and Toone. Here two tons of cheese a year could be turned out, and if men only knew what is good for them, or could be ia any way taught, they would come to the Waipa for their cheese if fpr nothing- else. Good pasture, cleanli-

ness, and good appliances, with the one little secret of manipulation which each* maker prides himself specially upon and never discloses, are the principal requisites for pood cheese, and when I think of the horrible filth which men are oontent to pay for aB cheese in many parts of NewZealand, the only wonder is that there is not a general rising of the gorge against it, and a rush to some decent spot where it is turned out clean and tasty) and fragrant like this, or the Stilton made by Mr Henderson, of Kihikihi. A pipe, recnbans sub teff mine faff i, and a cool stroll across the fragrant meads in the evening to my hostelrie, completed one of the pleawmtest days I have spent in the Wxipa,