GRAIN GROWING V. GRAZING.

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1868, 26 June 1884, Page 2

GRAIN GROWING Y. GRAZING.

TO THi: KDITOII. Sir, — For ploughing, seed - sowing, hai vesting and thrashing I consider that your estimate of £2 10a or £3 per acre is fairly correct, and your allowance of £1 per acre for rent may also be admitted, but in your estimate of £2 per acre profit at present prices (and the prospects of higher rates w ith so many vast erain fields in India, the Argentine Republic, United States, Canada, &c, are not hopeful) you allow nothing whatever for deterioiation of the land, or sufficiently for risk of damage by weather, &c. To call such profit you must use capital as revenue. Some straw might be used by cattle on tin nips, or if cut into chaff would be good for sheep also, but with our moist and unceitain climate, and heavy expenses, I fear that grain growing for moic than to meet local requirements will leave no sufficient inaigin for prpfit. But the climatic drawback to grain farmintr alibi d, on the other hand, special advantages for grazing and turnip husbuidry, and with the prospects which there are for getting our pastoral products, with increasing facilities, to good and improving markets, a wide field is presented fot profitable enterprises, and to follow a system of farming w hich will eniich instead of, as in grain growing, impoverishing the soil. I assume that sheep will be kept, if possible, as when piopeily managed, and the soil and circumstance's at .ill suitable, they are infinitely more piofitablc than cattle; indeed, the profit of a ewe is about equal to that of .i cow for other than dairy purposes, and may be moderately estimated at 10s per annum gross. We will suppose that the land is in old grass, that would be better to be lenewed, the cost of ploughing, han owing, turnip seed and sowing it, and manure, would be about 11s Id to 11s Gd per acre. Until the land was put in good hoart I would recommend \ery heavy manuring for the litst couise, giving bone-dust or lime and Maldon Island guaiiO to the cost of £2 or £2 10s per awe. With this tieatment of tuinips., alter wheat, I have kept in Otago 23 sheep an acre for five months on land not equal to on i avetagc good land hcic, and tor piazmg put poses it doubled the subsequent valuo of the land. Mr J times McDonald, M. H.R, whose farm was not better than the aveiage of the Tokomairiro land, writes that he fat, tened 53 sheep an acre for three months. He sow eil the same 23 acres in grass and kept on it 100 ewes with 123 lambs and 100 hoggets fiom the beginning of spring to the middle of December, and the grass defied all their elfoi ts to keep it down. Ik- says, "I then took the sheep off and leaped 600 bushels of grass seed off the same 23 acres.'' I should add that Mr McDonald owns the lime woiks on his farm, and ot couise he applied lime libei ally, although fiom there being ah duly lime natuially in the soil the benefit might scat eely be regaided as so great as it would be in our i hames and Waikato soils. Mr McDonald thus kept 33 sheep onefoiiith of the year on turnips , this at 10s per annum left him £6 17s per acie for las turnip crop. Ho had 10 sheep besides lambs for another quarter on young grass, or at one-fourth of 10s £2 per acre, then he had 24 bushels per acre ryegrass seed, which at 4s would be £4 lb's per acre, allowing the hay and aftermath free to more than. co\ er all expenses. In Otago the winters aie much longer ami more severe than with us, and the pastures are cut up by cold, tli 3 ing winds in summer. Therefore, if so much stock can be kept per acre in Otago, how much more can be kept heie, where the spring is six weeks eailier, where the warm summer rains that injure our grain are so good for turnips and grass, and where summer almost lingers into spi ing. For myself, I can say that with high freights, heavy expenses and no good means of access, and w ith many other difficulties and disadvantages to proper farming, I have been able to keep about double the sheep per acre which 1 could in Otago, and I never saw so healthy a country for sheep. With railways soon to be completed, with new and better markets opening, with higher prices in prospect for pastoral produce, with manufactures springing up, with unproductive outlay decreased and less prices to pay for what they mud buy, farmers may jeasonably hope for a better recompense for their toil, anxieties and lisks than they had for some years, and with rural prosperity our seaport cities may not be crowded by agents and unemployed an unfortunate anomaly and a clanger to our social advancement. I read recently that till 1870 the farmers of the United States of America were quite as poorly remunerated as New Zealand farmers, but owing to the wonderful development of the railway system, cheap freights, good markets, both externally and by the wonderful increase of American manufactures, also internally, while their expenses and the cost of their requisite purchases were greatly decreased, it is stated that as a result the farmers have accumulated over £600,000,000 since 1870, and are now independent of money lenders, and are the wealthiest class in the community. The protectionists claim much of the credit, and there can be no doubt that New Zealand will have to produce more and import less. For instance, distillation ; if the use of spirits is not to be entirely abolished, why should the farmers' damaged grain, wheat, barley, oats, or rye be denied a local market for distillation. Distilling would keep money in the country and employ labourers, who would have to be fed and clad,- and so provide occupation for othera, white the pure spirit produced would be less hurtful han many of the vile compounds imported ; and not only this, but soon a large export business would spring up. Will the Ashburton farmers, while unable to use their sprouted grain, remember that it was Sir J. Vogel who caused £43,000 of public money to be paid to stop distillation, and to please bis-im-porter and temperance sapporters. Then, it is surprising that no woollen mills are at work in this province where wool is cheaper than in any part of the colony, l^lba wool costing 9d wonld make a* yard of cloth, and the -cost of manufacturing would be about Is 3d, or 2s per yard actual cost for good tweed. Surely there is a margin between thai; and importer's prices! — I am, 4c, Wm._Ahch. Murrat, l fuko, Ju»q 18th, 1594.