FARMERS’ COLUMN.

Dunstan Times, Issue 902, 1 August 1879, Page 3

FARMERS’ COLUMN.

HINTS TO SMALL FARMERS. —o ( continued.) If it would le to the interest of the squatter to adopt, in place of the usual system of grazing, a modified system of mixed farming, how much will it be to the advantage of the small farmer to pursue such a course, I need hardly 'state that such a method is pood for the land. The aim should be so to manage a farm that the land should not be impoverished. The capacity of the land to produce should not he lessened, but rather increased every year. A true farmer will so manure his fields that after taking off a crop that it will be in a proper condition to grow another crop. Producing hay anil straw, he has a plentiful supply of food and bedding for his stock, especially in the winter months. The manure heap, being attended to, assists, with the addition of guano and bonedust, to enrich the ground. Sheep arc changed from one paddock to another, and they improve the land upon which they run. I look upon a diversified system ofj farming as a profitable system. A settler having about one hundred acres of land, can run in addition to a small flock of sheep, some ten or a dozen cows. The produce of butter and cheese should buy su.ficient groceries and leave a balance for other purposes. Ho will have so many head of vonng cattle to sell every year. The wool and perhaps a few lambs will bring in an additional item. If the orchard is sufficiently advanced there may he fruit to dispose of, and that, with the money obtained for bacon and poultry, will bo always welcome. And in this way by proper management a farmer may raise nearly all the food necessary for his wife and family—his flour, meat, vegetables, and fruit, besides having a considerable quantity of one thing and another to send to market. Of course it would not he possible for me to enter into any lengthened details as to haw this diversify is to ho carried out Each farmer must study the matter and decide for himself. He must calculate whether he has sufficient help in his family to carry on a dairy, or whether his fences are adapted for keeping sheep. Ho must understand something of the nature of his soil with regard to cropping, and of the location of his farm in relation to a market for his produce. He must consider whether it would he more profitable to turn his crop of potatoes into bacon than send them to market, at a heavy cost for carriage-; whether it would pay him better to consume all his hay by feeding his cows and horses, or whether he should turn it into cash. MINOR PRODUCTS. It has often been thrown in the teeth of farmers that they disdain to produce little things, to utilise what has been termed the nooks and corners. The ruling idea seems to he to rely upon one or two things rather than a number. Many farmers, for instance, would pooh-pooh the idea of making money by keeping poultry, and yet Mechi says that noting pays better. What a small proportion of tanners in some places who arc in the habit of growing their own grass see l 1 Yet with a little trouble they might produce sufficient for their own use and have some for sale. The following is what the editor of a Melbourne paper said some time ago on the subject :—“ It is the constant experience of most farmers that at times the main crop isjaglut in the market, and ho cannot realise at a living profit. It is just then that the despised sources of income are most welcome ; but how few can say, ‘Here is something that, small in itself, will enable mo to wait till better times for the disposal of my main produce.’ Let any impartial spectator visit one of our ordinary homesteads; he will be surprised at the narrow lines upon which Australian agriculture is conducted. One side are corn and crops, and on the other cattle and sheep, with possibly the commencement of a fancy experiment, and that is all. He sees styes, built years ago, when pigs were thought worthy of attention, hut now the styes are empty- Where arc the poultry ? He will find a few rough barn-door fowls strutting about the wheat ricks, nothing more. If he happens to he a city man, accustomed to pay heavy prices for poultry, ho will stare with astonishment when informed that not one in twenty farmers care to breed them. Whore arc the horses? He will find just enough on the place to get through the work, and no more. He will go far before he Hinds auy attempt at systematic horsebreeding. Supposing the visitor should

make remarks upon what may be evident facilities and advantages for sopie industry, he will probably get a similar reply to that which a large farmer who possessed splendid opportunities for the rearing of poultry is reported to have made. He admitted would pay to some extent, but with a movement of impatience, added : ‘I can’t be bothered with such (riddling tilings as that. By way of conclusion I may say that, if proper forethought he exercised and a wise system of cultivation he carried out, the small farmer need not fear that- his land being tolerably good and having a little capital to work—he will get along. If he obtains a comfortable living off his farm, has the wherewithal to buy fertilisers for his land, every year sees that his farm is becoming more productive, and has crops of various kinds to disoose of, he mav be regarded as successful. His ultimate prosperity, however, mainly depends on the management of details ; and if he goes on without system, without care and economy, his farming may end in disappointment, and loss.