WHEAT CULTIVATION.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXIII, Issue 3261, 30 December 1867, Page 4

WHEAT CULTIVATION.

To the Editor of the Daily Southern Cross. Sik,— Your leading article, relative to the growing pf wheat, in your paper of a late date, referring to a memorandum by Mr. Marshman, reprinted from the Lylteltm Times, is deserv;ng of perusal and consideration. Certaiu it is that the merchant who who purchased in Canterbury the wheat for export could hardly have done so under more favourable circumstances — the price being only some 245. per quarter. But how would that price suit the producer? Would it pay him? Very likely not. First, there would be the ploughing of the land, the seeding, harrowing, reaping, threshing, winnowing, sacking, and marketing. If we suppose the produce per acre roughly to average about twenty-five bushels, the money value would be represented by £3 155., whioh sum would be supposed to cover all the expensed. Nothing has been said about rent, taxes, manures, ke, so it is presumed that the agriculturists are proprietors, or would require to be so. In the successful importation of New Zealand wheat into the port of London we find that the middle man or merchant has had all the cream of the speculation. In your leading article you state that you " believe, therefore, that the chief reason for the reluctance of the farmers to grow grain was the large and i certain profits they made by rearing or fattening stock, with a comparatively small expenditure for hired labour, and not the scarcity and cost of labour." To a certain extent, I believe you are right. The agriculturist follows in the footsteps of the pakeha or old identity settler, imbibing a taste for the pastoral life, since the healthy avocation of riding or walking round his fields examining his stock, &c, is simple »nd easy, and seldom requires any assistance. The reverse is the case should, the settler decide to farm by rotation of cropping ; the calculation being that of a ploughman and pair of horses for every fifty acres cultivated. Here it might be necessary to have at times more horse labour, since the land to be turned up for crop should be taken quickly and harrowed rather green, but not wet. One great obstacle to the adoption of a system of rotation is the difficulty the farmer labours under from his ignorance of the worth [ of the cereal crop. There being no regular corn market, and no grain price quoted in Auckland, the money value of a bushel or quarter is nominally the null opinion, which is somewhat arbitrary, and rules j until the arrival of the mail frith the Sydney, Nelson, or South American intelligence. Perhaps it is owing to the small breadth of land generally under this cereal in this neighbourhood and province, that the inhabitants of our city have not agitated for or caused the erection ef a Corn Exchange. That the cereals can be grown profitably there can be little doubt. But they must be grown well, the success being in striving to obtain the greatest amount of bushels per acre. It has been frequently stated in the old country that wheat won't pay if sold under 60s. per quarter. I look upon this as being the tail end of the old protectionist cry ; nevertheless at home the farmer has to make the land yield more, Bince he has his rent, taxes, &c, to say nothing of manures for top-dressing. Wheat in the old country is generally preferred, since the price rules higher than barley ; the latter cereal requiring the soil to be in good heart, and the climate favourable. Doubtless your observations may tend to stimulate and act as an incentive to the agriculturists of the province ; and though the old-fashioned | farmer has often been laughed at and ridiculed for his slowness and want of perception, still I believe the AngloSaxon energy has not departed from those agriculturist and early pioneers who have made themselves habitations and gathered together flocks and herds, grazing them on lands which lately, or at one time, were occupied by tea-tree and fern.— I have, &c, AGKICUIiTCJEIST.

A Legion as Rats. — A. few nights ago a party belonging to Haddington, who had occasion to travel between Tranent and the burgh, found himself suddenly in the midst of a legion of rats, which were leiburely crossing the high road from one side to the other. The rats were too much occupied with their own concerns to pay any attention to the paster-by, who, though every moment expecting to be attacked, was allowed to move on unmolested. The rats seemed to be in thousands, and, from the direction they weretakiag, appeared bound for a neighbouring ■taekyard. — Eaddington Courier. Lost! the buttons from a coat of paint