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Waikato Times, Volume xxx, Issue 2424, 24 January 1888, Page 2

That there must be a change of front in farming operations in Waikato has been , pointed out more than once in this jour- \ nal. Our settlers are to be congratulated , on the unusually large breadth of wheat ". grown this season, aud the present bountiI ful crop will do much to confirm them in the future in turning their attention to t, what must form the chief staple of agrioul- " ture in Waikato, namely, wheat-growing. But to grow wheat, the land needs preparation, and the manuring of stock ; and as an auxiliary crop the turnip must , take its place in the rotation as regularly l as wheat. It is here that another change •> of front is required, if farming Nto pay. 5 The present system of feeding off the t the Usnjips! with cattle, while it prepares the laud, for the succeeding crop of wheat . is a heavy tax upon the pioiits p,l that 1 crop. Kor some time past the price of fat - .cattle has been steadily falling. Varmors . have fed their turnips and grass to S fresh stock and sold the;)) as ■: beef often at a price which left

the cost of working and manuring the land for the turnips, and when tliis is the case it is fairly a charge upon the wheat crop. But matters, as regards the value of cittlc, have gone from bad to worse. Anyone who has attended the last few cattle sales can see this for themselves. Nor, looking at the markets elsewhere can we hope for any substantial relief in this matter. Cattle rule low, and are likely to do so. Where, then, must we took for a remedy ? It is not far nor difficult to find, but simply wc must, as quickly as we can, make sheep and not horned cattle the chief stock of the farm. Where beef must look almost entirely to a local market, mutton, and especially lamb, thanks to the frozen meatsystcm, can find an outside market. Wool, too, is another staple which can always command a world-wide market, and, like wheat, a sure and certain price. Supposing that the land which will carry one beast will carry four sheep —and this is well within the mark —we shall find a very different balance-sheet at the end of the year in favour of the latter. Six pounds of wool from a sheep, and sevenpence per lb for the wool, is a fair average estimate, and fat lambs should realise seven and sixpence each. Here is something tangible at least in the shape of profit to set against the cost of the turnip crop, while there is actual loss on the beasts themselves in the case of feeding cattle, as well as the entire loss of the turnips and grass consumed. But this is not all. Any farmer who has tried botli plans, the one of feeding off his turnips with cattle, and the other with sheep, knows that there is a difference on an average crop of wheat of some five or six bushels per acre in favour of the sheep-fed turnip hind. This is a considerable item in itself. Such a change, of course, cannot be brought about all at once, or altogether, nor is it desirable that it should be so ; but, as in cropping, so in cattle breeding and raising, the farmer must turn his attention to more than the one kind of produce. Neither all cattle nor all sheep arc desirable, but a mixture of both will succeed best, and make the most of the pastures and the greeu feed upon a farm. The preponderance should, however, be mainly towards the breeding of sheep, whereas now they are not to be found on the majority of farms. The grazing of cattle upon newlyreclaimed land sown into grass is necessary to keep it from going back into fern. Sheep will not do this ; but each kind of stock has its proper place in the economy of the farm, and if wheat-growing is to continue to be what this year it has shown itself —the sheet anchor of the Waikato farmer—it will be by preparation of the land with sheep-fed green crops, which will not only ensure the success of the wheat crop, but in doing so will enable the farmer to prepare the land for wheat at a profit, instead of, a s at present, by turning his turnips into beef, doing so at a loss, which loss has lu all fairness to be debited to the succeeding crop of grain.