COUNTRY SETTLEMENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume III, Issue 902, 4 October 1866, Page 6

COUNTRY SETTLEMENT.

(Prom the Weekly Hesaxd. ) Ont. of the. healthiest signs of the present time, y.i.d ono which makes us hopeful of the future, is to be found in the movement going on from the city to the country. Until within the last couple of years so much money was easily made in the town, that even those who came out to this province for the purpose of settling down upon the waste lands they were entitled to receive, were tempted to remain in Auckland or its vicinity, and embark their capital in business of some sort. The conclusion of the war has entirely altered the state of affairs, and rery many of those who were tempted to stop short of "their ultimate destination are now occupying, or about to occupy, their country lands. Por many years past so large a breadth of land has not been laid under cultivation in this province as is now to be Been. The want of something like a manual of agricultural operations for the use of settlers has always been felt amongst us. The reversions of the seasons, the variations of soil, and the difference of the various systems of carrying on farm operations, have proved perplexing questions to many at their first outset. ¥e have therefore determined on laying down a few general principles, leaving each one of our readers to collate from these, as the peculiar circumstances of his case may happen to require, that which he finds applicable to it. So much depends upon the amount of capital to be employed, the culture of the land, the distance from watercarriage, or a market, that a separate scale and system is necessary. One error into which many new settlers fall is the notion that it is useless, and indeed unsafe, to purchase horned cattle at once until they have grass land of their own to run them upon. They are either unaware that the cattle would find abundance of food upon their own waste land, or that of the unsold land of the Crown or unenclosed private lands in the district, or, aware of this, fear that the cattle would run the risk of being destroyed by eating the tupalci, which grows abundantly in some districts. In into this error the new settler is losing one of his chief and most- certain sources of profit and comfort. The danger from tupaki (a plant which only grotvs upon rich land, by-the-bye) is easily avoided by purchasing cattle used to a bush run, and, indeed, in so purchasing his cattle, a person proceeding to occupy a section of waste land avoids all risk of failure as regards stock. Cattle used to rich grass paddocks would certainly become depreciated by being placed upon a bush run, and would be liable to many accidents which bushreared cattle wculd escape free from. Of course, if cattle are brought to a strange 1 place, turned out uncared for, and are left altogether to themselves, many will become wild, enough and may ba lost altogether ; but, if herded by day for the first week or fortnight, and brought home regularly every night to the stockyard, there will be no fear but that they will soon become thoroughly domesticated to the place. One advantage the bush settler has over the rich grass lands near Auckland is that the mortality among calves, which takes place every winter in the paddocks about Auckland, is unknown in the bush, and this more than counterbalances the possibility of losing a cow or bullock in a creek or swaii'p. ° Indeed, if a settler commencing the reclamation of his laud were to wait until he had grass paddocks, before he purchased cattle, he might wait long enough. He must have cattle to make the grass, as well as to eat it afterwards, for he will in nine eases out of ten find it more to his purpose to employ the labour of oxen than of horses in reclaiming his land from a state of nature. On an old tTlled farm the work is more profitably performed by horse labour, but not so on a section of land which has yet to be made into a farm. Bullocks when unyoked from the plough or dray are simply turned out into the wilderness around and gather their own food, and if worked five days only in the week, will maintain themselves iu good working order ; their pace too is more suited to the breaking up of rough land, which contains many impediments to the plough beyond the uneveness of its surface—in the ploughing of wMch. with, a horse team some part or other of the plough would be constantly breaking, or even, as has been the case, the man holding the plough stilts flung by a sudden concussion forward among the horses' feet. In carting fencing and firewood from the bush, bullocks can be taken on rough roads and in places where it would be utterly impossible to manage horses; and, should an accident happen to the former, the knife can be resorted to, and the value of the beef will in a great measure make up the loss, where in the case of an accident to the latter the carcase would be useless. If horses are used, the beginner must make up his mind to the entire cost of the purchase of their food, until the farm is self-supporting. We have alluded above to the stockyard into which newly purchased cattle should for the first week or two bo driven nightly to domesticate them to the place. We have even known it to be desirable to pursue the same plan with working bullocks every now and then, say fc • four or five nights every two or three months, to cure them of too strong a propensity to wandering far away, The stock-yard, a square enclosure, generally built with strong posts and four rails should, if used for this purpose, and if it have not a covered shed attached to it, and be in _ any but a sheltered position, should have its sides drawn with ti-tree bush so as to break the violence of the wind, and afford some shelter to cattle, without which, during bleak south-westerly weather especially, they - would become liable to injury from /exposure to cold. At first, and while As yet the settler has neither straw nor fodder, the, yard should be littered with green flax, rushes, or even fern, though the last is least useful for the composition of manure owing to its power of resisting decomposition. Green food, even on newly broken up ■ land, where artificial manure is applied, 1 may be grown for feeding, or as it is termed j soiling the cattle, more especially milch cows and working oxen. From February to - December oats, maize, sorghum, and Cape ] barley may be advantageously sown for this purpose, and from May to November turnips f and rape in addition. Such land as con- , tains the least fern, but r.p u which there 1

has been a heavy growth of flax, tv/paki or Tcoromiko, should be chosen for the production of green food, when it is wished to obtain it from new ground, but artificial e manure must be used, however naturally s rich the soiL,.. We shall continue the subject in a future issue. t ■ ' '