CORRESPONDENCE.

Waikato Times, Volume XIX, Issue 1573, 3 August 1882, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE.

TO TUB KUITOR. Sir, — It has been well said that if fanners counted the cost they would have hesitated in their choice of a business, and if we consider their numerous difficulties, the uncertainty of the weather and markets, the want of available roads, the difficulty of procuring trained and reliable assistance in their labors, the swarms of pests, bird, beast, and reptile, there is no wonder that we hear the complaint that farming does not pay. It is much to be regretted that some of the farmers' chief disadvantages should be the result of the ill-directed zeal of some officious busy-bodies whose actions seem to corroborate what Dr Watts says about .Satan finding work for sucl . We would hope that in charity the persons who inflicted the rabbit and small bird pests did so through ignorance rather than from malignity. The former has not yet become a serious evil in the Waikato, but the latter can only be regarded as a grave public calamity, requiring to be grappled by prompt and general remedial action. Why, instead of colza factories which would make a crop of rape worth £30 an acre, have we to import lape seed even for sowing ? Turnip becd would realise at least £100 per acre, why is it not grown ? Why garden peas, which would return £20 to £30 or more per acre for seed not tried ? Why should Auckland, the oldest province in New Zealand, have to import oats and wheat, when yeais ago she could largely export? The reply is, the small birds destroy all such crops. I had to cut green a crop- of oats which a practical farmer said would be over 60 bushels an acre, as the birds were devouring the soft milky grain in myriads. lam certain that I could grow 40 bushels of wheat here if the birds and weather permitted it to be harvested. By good mixed turnips and grain husbandry there would be much wealth produced, and much labour employed ; of this I feel confident, froir the practical trials I have made, but we must get rid of the gramniverous birds first. How is this to be done ! Last session my fiiend Mr Saunders, who had been requested by the Canterbury farmers to pass the Protection of Crops Bill, was unavoidably called away, and by his wish I passed it through the House of Representatives, opposed only by lawyer agents of large absentee landowners. The Legislative Council rejected the bill, as Honorable Councillors said " they would not have their game poisoned to protect the crops of the Cockatoos." I should hope that this session Mr Steward will be more fortunate than Mr Saunders, and meet with less selfishness and more patriotism in the Council, and no time should be lost in putting the act into force, for when spriug comes round and clover ripens it will be too late. 'Although much of the grain s6wn is eaten by the birds, yet this would not destroy the chance of a-«rop. This season I sowed oats broadcast, after rape, in the end of May; all the' oats on, the surface were eaten, which I did not mind, but when the young grain came up, the ground seemed literally white with the tender shoots the birds had pulled up, and the crop , appeared to be ruined. However, more shoots from - deeper buried seed came up, and a gentleman from Canterbury a few days ,ago said .it was about" the ;best' he \Kad eyev^een, though perhaps it, migKi,'be too 'thick., I only sowed two ! bjibh"fls v pf^T^f&,r. oats per acre, and ?theje^|aji'e|iio^ eight k inches long on an averace.a'^Jfl 'tKe'iiiiGdle ; of June 1 sowed 1 anoj»hei'SfieldvJtflewA'land|

was all eaten, but I saw no dead birds. Oats which I sowed in an adjoining field, after turnips, seemed to have shared the same fate, and I gave this a seeding of poisoned wheat, which was all eaten by mid-day next day, and there were still plenty of live birds and no dead ones ; while the oats, which seemed to have been hopelessly destroyed, are as fine a crop, so far, as I have ever seen, and I have grown 100 bushels per acre at Waitahuna, Otago, and I only sowed'l^ bushels Tartar oats per acre in the last two fields. lam led. by observation to the opinion that larks do harm only in badly covered and farmed fields, soon after sowing, and that in harvest they do little harm, feeding like starlings and the valuable kingfisher, on grubs and insects. In harvest it is the ruinous depredations of the sparrows and linnets which we have to fear ; they do no good in compensation, while the lark seems to do rather more good than injury. How can we avoid punishing the trivial offender and the guilty criminal together ? Farmers should compare notes, and see how they can aid their common friends and resist their common enemies. Dr Hector's department might be more practically and usefully employed in assisting them than indulging in theoretical philosophy. — I am, &c, Wm. Archd. Murray.