LYTTELTON BOROUGH LAND RESERVES.

Press, Volume XLVIII, Issue 7863, 14 May 1891, Page 6

LYTTELTON BOROUGH LAND RESERVES.

(Bγ oue Special Reporter)

Yesterday Mr J. B. Milsom, the Mayor o* Lyttelton, Councillors W. Cook, J. T. Brice, and J. Thompson, and Mr J. Sowden, Foreman of Works, visited their borough (and reserves between the Ashburton and Rakaia rivers. The party went down by the morning train to Ashburton, and proseeded from there to the reserve in bnggies, the object of the journey being to make the councillors acquainted with the property they control, and to see whether it was advisable to make certain plantations on the borders of the reserve for the purpose of shelter aud improvement. Mr Seeley, a *well known nurseryman in Ashburtou, jtront "to gpnre his opinion on the siiitixbilifcy o£ ground for trees, "fciies Itincl of "fcx"©es3 ttiaX -would grow t>esrt. The land xeserves BfM I I I owned l>y the borough of Lytteiton m that particular district are considerable,, consisting of a block of 1200 acres and another tone of 300 acres, both of which are occupied Try "3&z- 35rlek- 2*f r Briok: slio"w©<i Iris Ijvn<lMs every attention, met tHem nt Aaltour 'ton with, at buggy and. his famous pair of ponies, and drove them to an excellent luncheon at hi 3 house. After the party had inspected the reserves and decided with Mr Seeley on the kind of trees best suited for ■the plantation, they walked acroS9 SOme of Jlr Brick's paddocks and saw an advanced etyle of farming. For Mr Brick is one of the foremost farmers about Ashburton, i tztd that means a good deaL In one paddock of about 200 acres two three-furrow ploughs were at work, each drawn by sis horses. Three-furrow ploughs are a new idea, but the men who wish to make farming pay must accept new ideas. A three-furrow plough, th-jugh it takes six horses, can be worked by one man, and that one man can plough six acres a day. English farmers who consider that a man is something of a prodigy who ploughs an acre % day, would be astonished still more if they saw a man doing six, and doing it well too, for the three-furrowploughs work admirably, jure easily turned at the ends, can be set with great accuracy, and require no great exertions on the part of the driver. The process of ploughing the land, harrowing it, and drilling the seed wheat were going on at the same time, aud each process was .in accordance with the six acres of ploughing per man per day, for the harrows were so wide that it took tive horses to drag them, and the eeed drill had twenty-thret coulters, or nearly twice as many as the ordinary number. Roughly speaking, four men were doing as much work as seven could do with ordinary appliances, and were usine only the same number of horses. It wast style of farming that the representatives of Lyttefcon jwsre not used to seeing, b*t they acknowledged its wisdom and eC X y completing their business, the party AenXove Sack to just ,m .tune to catch the night express to Chrzfltchorch.