FARM NOTES FROM ENGLAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 9539, 4 December 1889, Page 3

FARM NOTES FROM ENGLAND.

[FROM.OUR ENGLISH ACiIUCULTUIIAL CORRRSI'OJJDKNT.] . .'. ' London, October THE COST OF WHEAT-GROWING. This topic is now exciting some attention, iv controversy having arisen in the Standard and the Agricultural Gazette out of a statement made by Mr. Primrose McConnell, a well-known lecturer on agricultural science at Oxford University, and a member of si little colony of Scotch farmers settled in Essex. Mr. McConnoll gives details showing that he can grow wheat with profit to sell at 30s .1 quarter. : He, or rather his father, whose farm, he helps to manage, holds fairly productive, though nob firstrate, land at a low rent, his rent, tithe, and rates coming to only £1 0s 9d an acre. He charges £2 an acre for manure, which is very seldom applied directly to the wheat crop, and the other expenses bring* the total up to £6 an acre. His returns are 30 bushels of wheat at 303 a quarter, or £5 12s 6"d, and straw valued at £1 1 0s, thus making the total £7 2s Cd, and showing a profit of £G 2s Cd an acre. . Mr. McConuell's charges are reasonable, except that ho puts down nothing. for weeding or miscellaneous expenses. Ho does not hoe his wheat; but in most cases the crop ought to be chopped over, or weeded in some way. Then there are various miscellaneous expenses on a farm, - such ... as depreciation and repairs of implements and harness and the cost of odd jobs not done for any particular crop, which ought to be spread over the whole cultivated area of the farm, and these I should set at los an acre. But Mr. McConnell might charge £3 an acre for his straw, as he can get that when he sells it, so that if he increased his charges by 30s, ho would still be able to show a profit, and a larger one than he has shown. His system of farming is to keep about half the arable ■ land laid ■ down for five years, or occasionally more, in ' temporary pasture, composed of \ mixed clover and grasses. These are mostly fed on the land, and as his ■ cows pay well for their keep, he gets his land manured without expense. - Yet he charges : £2 an acre for manure, and: rightly, because wheat : is an' exhausting ; crop., He has. been able to reduce the number of horses and men formerly required to ■ cultivate the farm by about one-half through keeping half ; the arable land laid down in temporary pasture. For farmers who, have capital enough to i vest in a large { number of live stock, this system is, no doubt, a, very safe one to pursue. J3ub another farmer who Jias taken

part in the controversy shows that, when a good crop is grown, a more rexpensive system pays well. On twenty-eight acres this year he grew fifty-two bushels of wheat per acre, and sold it-at 32s a quarter, or 4s a bushel. Thus, his grain came to £10 B<3 an acre, and he sold tva> tone of straw per acre at £2 a ton, bringing his total receipts up to £14 Bs. His land is excellent, costing him for rent, tithes, ami rate £3 an acre. For manure he charges 30 an acre, assuming that the wheat crop does; not exhaust the full value.. His other expenses, including 14s for binding and carting straw, bring the total outlay to £S an acre. So lie snows no less than £6 8s an acre profit. Of coure he cannot reckon on such a yield as fifty-two bushels an acre and two tons of straw regularly, even on his good land. Besides, he "should charge the full cost of his manure, say, £3 an acre, as lie sells all the straw off, and he should add 10s for miscellaneous expenses. Even so his profit would be £4 Ss an acre. This is not a representative case, though there are more farmers who grow large crops as a rule and get a fair profit on wheat-growing at the present low price than many people imagine. Rents and other expenses have been greatly reduced in recent years, ami, where the straw is sold, wheat-growing on suitable land and with good management still gives a profit, though not otten a largo one. Without selling straw (and many tenants are prevented by their farm agreements from selling it), the difficulty of growing wheat at a profit is great. THE LATE PLANTING OF POTATOES. Several persons have this year tried the experiment of planting potatoes quite late in the season in their gardens, in accordance with advice given by a clergyman who has followed the plan for his main crop during the lnsb twelve years, with great success. He contends thnt the potato needs only three months to mature, and that the period ending in the middle of October is the best. Consequently lie sows his main crop in June, or even, partly, as fate as the hrst or second week in July, and he says that his yield is larger and less diseased than that of his early-planting neighbours, who put their seed tubers in during April or May. One experiment in this direction of which I saw the conclusion proved a partial failure. From a row planted on the sth of June a crop weighing at the rate of nearly seven tons an acre was raised and weighed in my presence ; but most of the tubers were very small, and none of them were properly matured. They were grown on heavy land, and they should have been left a fortnight longer to mature ; so this experiment is not decisive. Another row planted on the sth July was a complete failure, and very few satisfactory results have been obtained from such very late planting. But several correspondents of a daily paper have stated that from plantings up to the middle of June they have obtained excellent crops. Now, I cannot yet believe that all the skilled gardeners and farmers of this and preceding generations have been wrong in their time of putting in potatoes, and the only advantage of the late planting now recommended ,seems to me to be that it allows of a crop being taken in fields after winter rye, vetches, or trifolium, and in gardens after broccoli, cabbapjes, and other green, crops taken off the land in the spring. If potatoes do well when planted as late as the middle of June, the advantage of getting two crops oft' the same land in a season may be secured. GOOD PRICES FOR CATTLE AND SHEEP. At the recent Birmingham Shorthorn Show and Sale, where a large number of cattle were sold by auction, prices wero considerably higher than those of last year —fully £5 all round, I believe. This is satisfactory, as store cattle and sheep have lately been down in value from the very high prices of the summer sales. Similarly, at Lewes Siieep Fair the other day sheep sold at higher prices than ■ in any recent years.