MR BUDDO ON TOUR.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16606, 18 July 1914, Page 14

MR BUDDO ON TOUR.

FARMING IN GREAT BRITAIN, i

MEN AND METHODS

• The Hon' D." Buddo, writing from J London to a Rangiova friend, says:— j "A jXcw Zealander storting from Dover' to travel through Kent County , to London is at a loss to understand ! how the pasture looks so i green early : in March. ' Ho can scarcely believe that tho stormy sea he has experienced from Calais to Dover can bo tho warm I Gulf Stream that is said to favour the English farmer so much. Kent on March I 23 "had beautiful pasture, trews and I hedgerows sheltered a fine IoL of early i lambs that looked as if another six weeks would find them lit for the market. There were some hop plots, but on the whole most of Kent seems to be I given up to grazing. A trip to Devon I and another to Suffolk brought mo ' into contact with different methods of ! dealing with different soils. Generally two-horse teams work tho laud on tho fire-year rotation system with unfailing regularity—first _ year grain, second | roots,, third grain and two years in I grass. The roots receive tho manure. ,| and that is put on in most cases generously, barnyard manure in the usual quantities with sawt of artificial fertil- ] isers, usually superphosphate., kainit and sulphate pf ammonia mixed to ' suit tho soil. Tho cost of this, roughly, is say 25s an acre. Compare this treatment with our lewt to the acre in ; New Zealand, then wonder if pur turnip crops are receiving sufficient to lead us to expect a crop. < The farming , generally is on the same lines as thirty years ago, but there are a number of ! improved farm implements. Small | fields are most in favour, hut are the I cause of a lot of wasted land, and some farmers I visited in Suffolk were arI ranging with tho'landlord to be allowed I to dig tip tho trees and put two paddocks into one. There was no wn<=to land jn the roads. In most cases 2/ft was all the provision that had been made for traffic, and. while this was far too little for main roads, it was ample for .side roads leading to farms. It na.s occurred to me that we have been 111 manv cases altogether too liberal m putting a C6ft road to every farm. An I Enclish farmer would call it a great wnstf of-food land. All cattle are fed I inside ti'-l the grass had get a good start, and farmers were well pleased ' with nricos. Yearling store cattle were worth £l2 to £l4, and two-year-olds 1 £l7 to £lO. \ „ * w • "My n°xt stay was in York, where, I after 'vnwimr the old citv wall and | othor relies of past nrroatness. I went I into the country, and generally found the svstem "f farming improving tin further north I £p«A Yorkshire farmer take* a great pvidi in doing things well, and ho Ins little to learn. A most interesting _ thing was the comparatively low price ot agricultural land. A geod farm of lard that looked as gocd as TVmpleton could be boiurht say, £2O to £25 per acre. Hates are, say, 5s per acre, and in some eases 2s Gd for tithes. The I longer winter in England is a disad--1 vantage, but the greatest burden is undoubtedly tho cost of manuring to I keep up fertility. The system is almost ( ! a perfect science, and claims for comi pensation to outgoing tenants for newI l'v laid down grass with fertiliser are 1 calculated to a penny. | 1 " On the whole the farmer s life s-om- , ed fairly comfortable market towns I near, and he was better off for neigh- j | hours than in new countries. They spoke hopefully of high prices for produce and fat stock, and said that the last few years were. a great improvement on previous years. Roughly speaking fat sheep and cattle are double tho price, and in the spring more than double, what they would fetch . m l Canterbury. I saw the prices of meat in Harrod's butcher's shop ] tho system in London marked up as Canterbury frozen lamb 6id to 9}d. but I I early English lamb later was selling at | I bid to lSd per lb. T visited a large firm in the north selling nothing but 1 Home-grown, and next door Nelson's people were selling only New Zealand and Australian meat.' I. pointed out that they were foolish to turn away business and offered to send them some carcases of best New Zealand mutton to teach their customers. To this they agreed. The result should not bo in doubt. • ", , '■ Practically all farmers I met had two grievances—a rapid rise in the i rates'and insufficient trained farm labour. Tho increase in the rates has brought about a great improvement in the roads. The uso of broken metal and a heavy road roller has transformed the old useful road into motor tracks, but everyone complains of thev umtor-cars breaking up the roads. J>» cycles and light motor-cars are in great request, while horse vehicles are being in manv cases replaced by motor vans. Tho labour problem, though not acute, is causing thinking farmers a lot of of the farm hands are lads and soon find something elso to do, leaving tornew countries or going into manufacturing towns, and farmers are agreed that the supply of labour is not sufficient. A Lancashire manufacturer, speaking on the subject, said:— ( l employ'4oo hands and I am beginning to be' sorry for my oWu industry as well as. tb'e farmers iu-regard to lahour. T cannot got enough hands for mv factory, and I do not think it is likely the' supply will increase.' He added another reason for the scarcity in addition to emigration and the luro of tho city. Families are not more than half as large as. formerly, and in another two. or three decades wages, ho said, must level up, as the demand tor .labour will exceed tho supply. This is tho opinion.of a business man, and 1 give it for what it is worth. "The market towns in the Old Country are very much like what they are in New Zealand —a place to soil stock and a gathering-place to discuss prices of farm produce. In Scotland it is the general custom to pass fat cattle over si weighbridge as thoy come into the selling circle, lho weight is shown on a dial, and prices are based on a per cwt scale. I saw a 9cwt live-weight fat bullock bring i 45s 3d per cwt,' or £2O 7s 6dl; shorn wethers -48 s. fat lambs 455. . There was nothing special in the quality. "In passing over the border river I Tweed into Scotland the first thing to catch the. traveller's eye is the slated roofs on all farm buildings. Tile roofs are. general in England, hut m I Scotland there is more uniformity about ! homesteads. Oh tho ivholo, tho land is distinctly poorer. Tho increased caro given to rotation and to manuring the liMid brings tho Scotch farmer well up alongside his southern neighbour. There is good land in Scotland 7 but nothing ! like the proportion there is further 'south.' T visited many farms of from i seventy to three hundred acres, and i while 'all stock was selected from a > paying point of view, the care given to I farm "horses ' and the breeding of ! Clydesdales and selection made this I part of the farm stock a pleasure to j look at. On most small farms the I draught horses would be no discredit : to a show yard. Jn Scotland thirty j vears ago the term of a. farm lease, was nineteen years, but to-day, although tho rents are only some two-thirds of what they were then, tho farmer has his lease of, say. fifteen years, with a chance to break it at five or tenvear periods if ho wishes. This with compensation for unexhausted imnrovements makes the tenant farmer in Scotland fairly contented. Ho Ims the right by law to shoot rabbits and hares, and any complaint of too much feathered game usually leads to a reduction. "I mado a journey into tho centre of Ireland. There is an inclination to graze small farms, and Ireland is undoubtedly a good grass country. I did i not see many sheep, but cattle and pigs

I wcro well bred, and the only grievance j was that the prevalence of loot and I mouth disease prevented stores being i sent to Scotland to bo finished- A lug export trade in comparatively fat cattle to Glasgow, where they were killed at once, relieved the position a bit. " Summing up the position of farming in the Old Country, and leaving out the fact that much grazing laud in Scotland is going into game preserves, in my opinion a rise in the prices ot grain would sec much more token out of the land. Much of the best land is in permanent pasture, but the lighter land must be kept in rotation crops or it will deteriorate. A good farm cau bo leased at 20s an acre, and tho freehold purchased at, fay, £25 an acre. There is no uniform system of local taxation, but the landowner has generally a Fair share to pay. "To a New Zealander there seem to be- too many local bodies, and they ore just as hard to amalgamate into larger ones as they are in New Zealand. County councils and parish councils and supervising committees over them all — to a stranger there seem complications that should lead to undue demands on tho ratepayers. However. I must say that the roads are very good and charitable aid work is well looked after. Hospital matters engage attention, and towns and villages, even where old looking, are mostly scrupulously clean. " Somo alarmist writers arc never tired of telling us that Britain is decaying because the race is deteriorating. I purposely visited the most densely populated parte of the great cities at such hours as wore Jjkely to 6how the worst side of life, but saw little to bear out the assertion. Foreign language, were spoken by people who were not physically up to a reasonable standard, but. wherever a dialect of English was spoken the speakers were sturdy i noucth, and bright enough to represent the British race. I can only add that I was proud to see the great progress! cities, harbours, and public works bad made during the last thirty years, and plca-ed to see that education was being tackled more methodically than previously. Business was good and labour generally plentiful. In defence John Hull pinned his faith to a strong British navy, while at the same time ha was not indisposed to dr.cuns the universal training systems in in oversea dominions. Altogether a New Zealandcr can learn a great d'-al by a visit to the Mother Country. If he is a farmer be may want to know why they don't use a double plough, but it must bo borne in mind that ploughing is only a small portion of the farm work, and permanent hands arc the rule. Carnal , labour is almost impossible to be had iin rural districts. A farm next to where T was vi iting, 150 acres in area, employs five men besides the occupier all the year round. Two two-horse teams do the farm tillage and no day | labour is employed. Lads of sixteen ' get £ls for six month- and found, i while good ploughmen get £22 to i. j for tho half-year. Even wfth perma--1 nent work farmers find it difficult to get the men thev want, and it might Se worth considering whether a permanent hand r,v teni would not be beneficial to the New Zealand farmer.