THE FARMER.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume V, Issue 922, 26 January 1885, Page 3

T HE FARMER.

}j.- *< .-i .■>-... Nb"Tßs by Y. [> > iNaquestion is oftener asked at this season of the year than this. — What are you going to do with your stubble s.jland:?// : Many different 'answers are" commingly given . The most frequent f; < teingr-Plou^h it ' up, and sow grass , seed, with a little fane ; run my lambs (, on the stubble; and '■ plough' in the Bpring. Try for a crop -of stubble turnip ,- or plough down the stubble, ' J and grbwla crop of green' oats to feed off. Such -are the usual replies to the questioner, and so far as I can learn, if the ground is ploughed after oats, on this coast,. one : may sow what onelikes^.fbutJjthe will generally be a crop of green oats so close and rank 1 as to ! smother any* other seed which may be sown.- The practice" in England is, generally speaking, to ; skim the surface of the ,-i Stubbles' with' b broad shai*e. " Farm and Home ■"< W tins says :— " For the purpdse' of' paring our stubbles we * need not . invest in inasmuch :as /'our plough makers supply broadshares wbich can be attached' to ordinary ploughs, or even to double ploughs,, with which, good and rapid work is possible. The only ' difficulty with such tools is when, as this year,' the' land is very dry and. %! hard, then iihe" share will not always stick to the Stork, but run over instead of , going.) under, the weeds. Under such conditions, the three and fourfurrow frame ploughs, which are comparatively modern inventions, and offsprings of tne double-furrow plough, will be found invaluable. We have recently,' purchased one of these implements from Messrs. Howard, described as a new three-furrow multiple plough, and find it most successful where the broad share attached to the doublefurrow plough could not work. The implement is probably well-known to our readers ; it consists of a square frame carrying the ploughs, the whole •[supported on a crank axle and two .wheels; by means of a lever handle the crank is raised or lowered, so as to take the ploughs up at the land's end or let them into work. A threefurrow> plough is easy tfork for a pair of horses, and from three to four acres can be accomplished in a day ; every portion of the land is moved, and the rubbish- is left on the surface, andean be readily separated by harrows, &c. These .ploughs are' also useful for <sovering-in seed corn sown broadcast; for instance, on good working - land they might be employed to follow sheep on^turnipsi and, indeed, for any . work* where' a light furrow was desirable." I should imagine that ,an implement such as that described would suit farmers cultivating the light land on this coast, and certainly the which the light Bid in England undergoes, might be propped with advantage here, where weeds of all sorts grow rampant. I notice that trifolium incarnaturn is a favorite catch or winter crop in the old country, but I never saw it tried in New Zealand. It is recommended that the stubbles should be scratched over, with the , harrows, and the seed 'sown immediately 'after harvest. The general rim in England now-a-days,; However," appear to. be, to clean Btnbbl©|iji August' and September, bo thAt^'i^ crqp^.imay be taken in October-wita t: 'rye, winter oats or barley,, vetches J or , s turnips. Such catch crops, it is now admitted, improve and manure 'the land rather than impoverish it, if fed off with stock, or ploughed ;in when not , closely fed off II 11I 1 Tots does not apply to stiff clays however; which neea a winter; fallow so" fas, to be mellowed by frost and weather.