CHATS WITH THE FARMERS.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 4086, 9 January 1878, Page 2

CHATS WITH THE FARMERS.

A VISIT TO NEW FARM, THE' FARMj OF MR. ANDREW HEWITSON, TUAKEroTo! ""''"• Mr Andrew Hewitson arrived, in Dunedin with his wife,, four sons '^and' five 1 daughter's, ; 18 years ago. , 'His father had' a small dairy and agricultural farm'^in Ayrshire, Scotland, and upon it the son acquired practical knowledge pif farming. Upon arriving inOtago, he, had very jittle capital, and he accepted an engagement to cut firewood at Pine Hill. „ He afterwards leased a piece of bush, and was employed for five ov ■ six years in . supplying the Dunedin market with firewood/* posts and rails, piles, &c. Hsving by iiint of- hard work, self-denial, and sobrietyj' saved a sum of money, he purchased 225 actes of Crown land at Tuakitoto,", between mairiro' ; Sputn and Lovell's BTat,' -^t £1 per acrei ;1 'Having' had -'twgnty-nVe^cres fenced in, and sown iii wtie&fc and oa;fs, he removed to. the farm. Although' the breakirig"up of the land for this first cro^ cost 32s 6d p.er acre, still, .the produce paid very well. ' The yield'" was forty bushels per acre— the bats" selting 1 in Dunedin at 5s 6d per bushel* and* the wheat, which was converted into'flqur^ bringing 44s per bag. Two ; years Waiter, his first purchase, he added to .the extent' of his farm, so that it now' 'comprises 281 acres. • • . ; " ! . ., . The soil is a loamy clay, contairiing ( a good deal of undecayed vegetable fibre. No doubt a liming would-be of benefit to it. The first sowing down in English, grass does , not . make ; at - y.ery -luxuriant growth^ but the second is,excelle^.' v olly choice spots are good for'wfieat.^Smle, however, it has been broken I up^McLy down, and broken up again/ "it" "appe;&X to, grow.better^heat. The. first crop^, oats, after lying-in pastur^for^ix^y^M; yielded 80 br shels per acre, and the second, 50 bushels. The average yielS*' however, is 40 •bushels.^ It is 'a goodstrong micaceous^ spil. When ploughedand exposed to^thM- frost, it. is quite friable in the spring^ * Mr Hewitson took with him to the farm two fine milch cows and, a. heifer... He purchased other cattle, arid ' although the , hundred was free for .grazing, he kept; them herded and in paddocks, as many of I j the neighbors lost stock by toot-poison-j ing on the common. It took him some time to fence his farm, 'antfcost^a good deal, as; the < material had : to be r hauled from Mount Misery, a distance of six miles, The fencing is chiefly wooden | posts and wires upon a two-foot sod, with; a ditch up^n, each side. Whitehorn is the' fence which 5 Mr Hewitson prefers. ! There is nothing,: he says, to equal it. Ab for whins, he says they may be economical to begin with, but they become expensive in the end. r . ..,,.,/, , Mr Hewitson has grown •upoii.his^iand a good deal of . grain,' potatoes,^lnd turnips, but he is now 'gettiiigi-'mp^t^pf' it into English grass, to be.cpnyp^^into beef, mutton, wool, butter, and ckeese. This year he will have only 20. acres in oats, turnips, and potatoes, and .about 200 in English grass. He has 25 headfof horned cattle, six horses, 240 sheep, 120 lambs, and a few pigs. Sometimes* he purchases a few store cattle, but he rears more than he purchases. "His milch cows are colonial, but he considers them 'as good as any of the Ayrshire breed for butter and milk. He keeps them- up in. winter, and for" some time hegaveUwam. boiled turips, bran, and chaff, as in Scotland, but he considers it unnecessary now, as he has plenty of most excellent pasturage, and the cooking of food is not so much required here as in Scotland, where the winters are longer and more severe. . His sheep are half and threequarter Leicester. This year he had 100 per cent, of lambs. . Having every convenience for washing — a fine clear stream, a good pool with a gravelly bottom, and a grass paddock adjoining — he has washed the sheep every year, and with satisfactory results as regards prices. Last year hia wool brought Is 6d per lb. He grows fine crops of turnips, making a liberal.uae of farm-yard manure and goaiio. "Last year he used two cwt. of Maiden Island guano to the acre, and had ,30 tons of turnips to the acre. For the last two years there have been no insect plagues, but three years ago caterpillars were troublesome. Mrs Hewitson, who has charge of v the dairy, is quite an expert in the manufacture of cheese, having had experience in the art in Ayrshire, a part of Scotland which is famous for cheese-made upon the Dunlop principle. Her Dunlop cheese is highly prized, and me,ets with a ready sale in the district. The price tins-season., is 8d per lb. It is a full-milk cKlese. The process which she adopts is as follows :— The night's milk' having been strained into dishes, is mixed with that, of the morning's, a portion of it having been warmed so as to bring up the whole to a temperature of blood heat, . It is then put into the curd-vat, ' arid the rennet remains in it for, half, or three- ■ quarters of an hour, when, the whey being removed, it is broken gently, and allowed to stand for 10 minutes. The curd is then cut and put into the .dipper, which is a perforated wooden vat, YjJB 11 it is subjected to pressure in a lever njjjws. It is cut two or three times, and <Jjnen/ crumbled down is salted and coloredjfcyod is dry enough that night for the prass. As in the Cheddar process, the ciotl^B in in which it is enveloped are chan#sd. Last year, Mrs Hewitson took theTirat , prize at the Balclutha show (a cruet-stand ; ; valued at £4 10s) for cheese, and a teapot for salt butter. This year she took the first prize (a cruet-stand) for butter in prints ; and at the Tokomairiro show . she took the second prize (a press) for : cheese.— (Otago Witness.)