The Farm.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1032, 11 December 1891, Page 26

The Farm.

BUSH FARMING. I An original 6ssay on bash farming in New Zealand, written for the New Zealand Mail, by John Scott, winner of three first prizes for essays on agricultural subjects. BUSH-FELLING; Before commencing this portion of my essay I may say a few words in reference to specifications for felling. These are generally bound up in such a way as to bo as unbreakable as the laws of the Medes and Persians. But they are not. It is often amusing to read the almost impossibilities that are expected from bushmen. * Nostump shall be higher than three feet.’

‘All underscrub up to six inches in diameter must be cut with a billhook, etc.’

All specifications should be as concise and as much to the point as possible. When bush is felled by contract, specifications are highly necessary in order to protect the 1 farmer’s interests, but too often the men do not get sufficient pay for their work, and are unable to make any money out of the work at the price it was taken at. But this is not the bashfarmer’s fault. It is the fault of the men tendering for the bush at a price they cannot earn a fair wage from, and signing specifications promising to make a good job of the work. If all settlers had their bush felled well, badly burned clearings would look a great deal different. But on hilly land farmers do not know what a bad burn is. It is on the dead level bush lands of Taranaki that bad burns are seen. For a new beginner to get a bad burn the first season is a great drawback to him. In Taranaki the bush is of a more evergreen nature than in the Manawato, and consequently has to be thoroughly dry before there is any probability of a good fire passing over the clearing. Fuchsia and whitewood trees should all be off tb6 stump, as both timbers will keep green if only held by a fesv Bplinters. High whitewood stumps should not be seen in a clearing, as, if a wet season comes, these ‘ soldiers ’ grow again, and” it is an expensive matter to bring the clearing into proper order. It is usual wiser a the pines, ratas, and pukatea trees are not too thickly studded over the ground to allow them to stand, but it may be said that it is the best plan in nearly every case to fell everything. The first cost is the best, and to wait for years until the trees are burned down is rather too long. Rata trees can, however, be allowed to stand, as half of these are often burnt down at the original burning-off, and the others, if allowed to stand for two or three years will be found to be easily got rid of.

Lopping the felled trees is an important point. Unless the branches are cut off and allowed to lie close to the ground it is impofsible for the fire to do its duty as well as it should do. No ‘smashing’ in a whilewood bush should be allowed—that is, throwing a large tree against smaller ones, without the latter being cut, and no stumps should bo higher than four

feet, except in the case of pukatea, where the great ‘flanges’ preclude chopping a tree off close to the ground unless by a great deal of labour. Stages to chop these trees down can be easily made out of a piece of white pine firmly attached to a horee-shoe The horse-shoe is inserted in a small scarf or notch and the axeman stands on the board. The stage is easily made, and can be quickly fixed for work. However, I have seen clearings horribly felled, high stumps being visible in all directions, yet the bush burnt well, leaving the ground clearer of timber than on land that had been better felled. But had the season been a wet one the result would have been different.

In felliDg fencing lines it is best to clear the whole of the trees on both sides of the fence for at least two chains, and if the next neighbour clears the same distance there would be enough scope for a fire to run over, if the season be anything like favourable. 111 concluding my remarks on bushfelling I should state that no new beginner should commence felling by himaelf. It is, to the uninitiated, a dangerous work, and requires some skill before a man is thoroughly versed in his work.

I have drafted out the following half dozen rules to follow in bush felling.

•1. Learn to chop right and left handed. This will not necessitate standing at one side of the tree where there may be a chance of meeting with an accident.

2. In fellingheavy timber and taking down a number of trees at one time, always make sure that the trees are cut far enough through. Thus, when the tree intended to knock the others down is felled, the whole ‘ street ’ goes down without hanging. Many a good buehnian has lost his life through having to go back and finish off a tree in which others are hanging. 3. Always chop the front scarfe in about half way through the tree. The reason I say this is that in felling many of the timbers—tawa especially —if only a small cut is made iu front, in backing it off the tree is liable to split up in an instant and come down in a very dangerous way.

4. It is not prudent for two new bushmen to chop too close to each other; they should bo two or three chains away at least. 5. In going to fell a large tree make certain the way it leans, and put the cuts in accordingly. Never leave a tree until it has got well under [way to go. Many big trees, if nearly upright, will sway about considerably, and many may walk away, and the tree often falls where least expected. There is less danger in standing at the foot of the tree than there is in running away. If a tree is upright it is best to back it off with a saw and wedges. G. Always be cool and never lose your presence of miud. (To be continued.)

GRASS SEED HARVEST. Messrs Carter and Co., of London , in their Annual Review of the clover and grass seed harvest, Epeaking of the past season, make the following remarks : Red clover (trifolium pratense perenne). —The reports from the Continent of Europe are generally disappointing, large areas were ploughed up after the severe winter, and heavy rains have since destroyed or damaged those crops that survived the winter. American advices speak of considerable damage in many districts by grasshoppers and weevil. There is a fair acreage of English seed being grown, the condition of which must be entirely governed by the state of the weather at the time the seed is harvested. Irrespective of origin, many samples of red clover that we have seen bear evidence of being weather stained. American samples are again small and wanting in colour. Values at present show considerable advance on those at the end of last season.

White Clover (trifolium repens).— The European crop of this article outside Great Britain is reported to be a fair one in quantity, but the quality will be below the average of previous years, the seed being more or less damaged by the excessive rains. American advices speak of a fair crop, but as this seed is much smaller in the grain than European seed it is not so much sought after. Present values about the same as at the end of last season’s sales.

Alskve Clover (Trifohum hybridum). —European reports of this crop are generally very unsatisfactory. The quantity produced is supposed to be smaller than it has been for many years, and where the rains have been constant and heavy the samples will be seriously prejudiced. American advices speak of a fair average crop of good quality, but seed from this district will contain a larger quantity than usual of White Clover. Present prices are firm, but values may become a little easier than at the end of the selling season last year. Trefoil (Medicago lupulina). Trefoil is a considerable crop both in England and on the Continent, but as much of the seed was not harvested until after the rainy season set in, the quality will be below the average of the past few years, and prices may be expected to continue firm for bright samples.

Lucerne (Medicago sativa) is a fair average crop.

Timothy (Phleurn pratense).—Again the quality of the new deliveries of this seed is very satisfactory. This fact, combined with the extensive area under cultivation, and the considerable surplus held over in the producing districts last year, will probably have the effect of making the market easy during the present season. Rape. —Reports from the producing districts, both in England and on the Continent, state that almost the entire crop was destroyed by winter frosts. Good conditioned seed comes high in price at the present time, and may be expected to reach even a higher range shortly. Swedes, Yellow and White Turnips. —Crops of these seeds were got in

under fairly favourable circumstances, but in aldition to damage by the severe winter, the plants during the flowering period were in many districts attacked by a black flea, which rapidly destroys that portion of the plant, with the result that the outcome in. bushels per acre is very seriously reduced. Scotch yellows are represented by very limited quantities, and at the present time make higher values than they have done for several years.

Rye Grasses (Lolium perenne and italicum). Early advances indicated fair average crops, but the rains that were experienced at a later period have had the effect of damaging the seed, and prices have been gradually and firmly advancing ever since. It is also believed there is a smaller average than usual. This fact, combined with the somewhat unusual and important demand for shipment, tends to make holders very firm in their ideas of price, and it is not expected that any important change will be found in these articles during the year, in the shape of lower values.

Agrostis stolonifera (Ficrin). —The home crop of this article is again a fair average one, and the market reports speak of satisfactory crops ; it should be borne in mind that American samples of Agrostis generally abound in ergot.

Alopecurua pratensis (Meadow Foxtail) is again a fair average harvest, both in quantity and quality. Values may be expected to be reasonable.

Cynosurus cristatus (Crested Dogstail) is a very short crop, both in Great Britain and on the Continent, and it is probable before the season is over this seed will be praedcally unobtainable in quantities. Festuca duriuseula (Hard Fescue) is a fairly plentiful crop, and seed has been harvested in average condition.

Festuca pratensis (Meadow Fescue). —The report of this crop from the producing districts speak of a good average output, and reasonable price may be expected. Poa pratensis (Smooth Stalked Meadow Grass). —The crop of this article is very short, and as no surplus seed could possibly be carried over from last year, prices will rule high.

Poas nemoralis and trivialis (Wood Meadow and Rough Stalked Meadow Grasses). — Smaller acreages than usual of these grasses appear to have been under cultivation, and with only a moderate harvest prices are likely to be very firm. UNROLLING TREES. If a statement published in a recent number of La Precurseur is to be relied on there is at the Town of Merxem, in Belgium, a very interesting process of wood-cutting in progress. This consists of the unrolling or cutting of large trees into planks of almost fabulous length and about 3ffc wide. M. Oncken is the inventor of this machine, which is remarkably simple in its construction. Large poplars are sawn into logs of about a yard long, which are placed in immense boilers, similar in shape to the boiler of a locomotive. The boiler being shut, water is introduced and made to boil by means of a steam jet thrown in by a tube communicating with the generator. The water is allowed to boil for two or three hours or more, and during the whole time it

is boiling it is thoroughly electrified by means of electric wires attached to a powerful dynamo. The chemical action thus produced, in combination with the prolonged boiling, makes the wood soft throughout, so that it can bo cut easily. Next, the logs are lifted from the boiler by a pulley, taken between two forks and placed against the cutting machine. The knife of the cutter is about a yard broad, and against this the log is made to turn on its own axis with great rapidity. Eutering the soft wood, the knife cuts from it a plank, or rather sheet, of wood, varying in thickness from one-fifth. of a millimetre to fifteen millimetres, according as it is gauged. The sheet cut off passes through a slot at the back of the knife in one continuous piece, its length being determined by the girth of the log and the thickness of the sheet, and its breadth by the length of the log, which is never more than a metre, as M. Oncken lias not up to the present a knife wider than one metre in use. These sheets, or leaves of wood, of almost fabulous length, and more than a yard wide, are unrolled from a cylinder of wood barely able to produce planks of three to four decimetres in width. The sheets cut in this way are mostly worke _ ipin barrels and packing casks by another machine, but cedar, mahogany, rosewood, and other timbers used in cabinetmaking can be unrolled into veneers in precisely the same manner as the poplar employed for barrel making . By an ingenious drying apparatus ai surplus moisture is extracted from the cut timber in such a way that it dees not split by contraction.

LUCERNE. With regard to lucerne it is necessary to know that mowing the young crops is an essential part of the process of establishing it. Mowing is as necessary as sowing the seed or ploughing the ground. The successful growers of lucerne all tell us this, but notone in a hundred of those who commence with lucerne carry out the process. The importance of cutting, if it needed any snpport, would be upheld by the fact that American experience confirms our own in these colonies. Professor Henry, of the Wisconsin Experimental Station, on being asked whether sheep should be put on a young alfalfa (lucerne) crop, says :— ‘ I should not think of allowing a hoof on the alfalfa this season, as the life of the plant is quite precarious until it is well rooted. Bun the mower over the field occasionally if weeds spring up. This will allow the alfalfa plantß to get the sunlight aud become well rooted, the essential point in the successful growth of this plant. Sheep are very destructive to plants not well rooted.' If farmers would get rid of the idea of cutting as a means of obtaining lucerne liay or green stuff, they would be better able to grasp the principle involved in this advice. They seem afraid that they will be required to cut the fodder for the stock always, but they may graze the stock as much as they like upon the lucerne after they have established the plant by one or two cuttings. Mow the young crop now and let the stuff lie in the field if not yvorth gathering. The ‘ lucerne will grow rapidly, but the weeds will not. WINDBREAKS FOR FRUir GROWING. [EXTRACTS TROM BULEETIK OB EXPERIMENT STATION AT COBNBLIi UNIVERSITY.] The benefits derived from the windbreaks are numerous, positive in character, and appear to possess sufficient importance to warrant the strongest recommendation of horticultural writers. Yet the injuries occasionally sustained in consequence of shelter belts may be serious, for it is a wellattested fact that trees sometimes suffer from cold in the immediate vicinity of a dense windbreak, when they escape injury in other placas. The fact is easily explained, however. The influence of a windbreak upon the temperatures of an adjacent plantation is governed by its position with reference to prevailing or severe winds. Of itself, wind probably exerts little or no influence upon temperature. “It acquires the temperature of surfscss over which it passes. If these surfaces are colder than the given area, cold winds are the result, or if warmer, a 3 a large bodv of water, the winds are warm But wind often causes great injury to plants because of its acceleration of evaporation ; and winds which are no colder than the given area, if comparatively dry, may consequently do great damage to fruit plantations. This is particularly true at certain times during the winter season. Land winds, being cold and dry, are therefore apt to be dangerous, while winds which traverse large bodies of water, and are therefore comparatively warm and moist, are usually in themselves protectors of tender plants. It is evident that if a windbreak stops or deflects a warm wind, it may prove injurious. A still place in. the lee of the windbreak may therefore be the coldest part of the plantation. So far as the writer is able to learn, tuis sort of injury from windbreaks is confined to those regions which are directly influenced by bodies of water. . The advantages of windbreaks in lessening windfalls and in preventing the breaking of trees, do not appear to be sufficiently understood. In sections which are influenced by -large bodies of water, or when the fruits grown are sufficiently hardy to endure the most trying winds, these are the chief advantages of shelter belts, and are ample reason for planting them. The greater facility with which labour can be performed in windy weather, under the protection of a windbreak, is worth consideration. The injuries sustained through the greater abundance of insects immediately adjoining the windbreak are easily overcome with the modem spraying devices. Professor L. A. Bailey gives the following summary of advantages and disadvantages : 1. A windbreak may exert great influsnee upon a fruit plantation. . 2. The benefits derived from windbreaks are "the following Protection from cold; lessening of evaporation from soil and plants , lessening of windfalls; lessening of liability

to mechanical injury of trees ; retention of snow and leaves ; facilitating of labour ; protection of blossoms from severe winds; enabling trees to grow erect; lessening of injury from the drying up of. small fruits; retention of sand in certain localities; hastening of maturity of fruits in some cases ; encouragement of birds ; ornamentation. 3. The injuries sustained from windbreaks are as follows: —Preventing the free circulation of warm winds and consequent exposure to cold ; injuries from insects and fungus diseases ; injuries from the encroachment of the windbreak itself; increased liability to late spring frosts in rare case’. (a) The injury from cold, still air .is usually confined to those localties which are directly influenced by large bodies of water, and which are protected by forest belts. It can be avoided by planting thin belts. . , , , (b) The injury from insects cm be averted by spraying with arsenical poisons. (c) The injury from encroachment of the windbreak may be averted, in part at least, by good planting, and by planting the fruit simultaneously with the belt. 4. Windbreaks are advantageous whereever fruit plantatious are exposed to strong winds. . , 5. In interior places, dense or broad, belts, of two or more rows of trees, are desirable, while within the influence of large bodies of water, thin or narrow belts, comprising but a row or two, are usually preferable. 6. A mixed plantation, with the hardiest and most deciduous trees on the windward, is probably the ideal artificial shelter belt.

AGRICULTURAL JOTTINGS. The quarantine duty on cattle in New Caledonia (says the Sydney Morning Herald) has been reduced from 25fr. to sfr. This should opßn a market for cattle from New Zealand. Cattle are required for a preserving factory for the French army and navy. The average rainfall at Mount Zeohan, Tasmania, is 100 inches a year. They don’t require to make experiments in rain-producing there. Sheep-shearing machinery is being extensively employed this season in Hawkes Bay, and is said to be giving every satisfacfaction. The wheat and corn fields in the Marton district are looking extremely well just now, and give promise of a very good harvest. The ear is filling up fast and the straw is of good height.

The South Canterbury Freezing Company in the past year froze 152,560 sheep and 36,064 lanib3, the average weight being 65.051bs and 30.5 libs respectively. After allowing £2418 for depreciation the net profit for the year is £3OOB, and a dividend of S per cent has been passed, and a sub. stantial sum was carried forward.

Says the Gore Standard :— ‘ The New Zealand Agricultm-al Company sheared a few hoggets at Waim-a the other day. They were just 13 months old, and averaged exactly 131 b of wool each—a very good return. They were a cross betvveert Lincoln ewes and Southdown rams. An average-sized, one was killed, in order to ascertain the weight, and when oold, it turned the scale at 7olb. We want a few more hoggets like these in the country.

The crops in the Waiareka, Incholme, and Kaknnui districts are reported to be looking wonderfully well after the rain, and it is now reckoned that the crops in North Otago will, as a rule, yield above the avoiage of the past three seasons.

We have received from Messrs lieid and Gray, the well-known manufactures of implements and machinery, a copy of their illustrated catalogue. It consists of about sixty pages, is excellently got up, and shows to what a magnitude the business of the firm has grown.

Four hares have been supplied by the Plumpton Park Company, Canterbury, for acclimatisation in Noumea, New Caledonia.

About two thousand five hundred bales of wool have been despatched from the Masterton railway station since the beginning of the season. The clip is coming in very slowly this year, owing, no doubt, to the prevalence of influenza in the shearing sheds.

A correspondent who has lately travelled over a .considerable range of Southland says that the appearance of the country is simply splendid. Bidges which a few years ago were considered poor ground, by careful farming are approaching the river flat crops in the rank green colour of the young oats. The grass, which is carrying heavy flocks of sheep of high quality, is not overmastered, but gaining on the stock. The fences are kept better than ever. The men who are going up shearing are of a higher type than in the past; better dressed and a credit to the community at large. In many cases they have previously Bhorn their own sheep. In their hands the larger sheep owners have evoay reason to expect that their wool will be more carefully Bhorn than in the past, when shearers included too many men whose sole ambition was to pile up a cheque to knock it down again. On one thing our correspondent doe 3 not compliment the community. He complains that the most slovenly, farming—in some cases no farming at all is that which obtains near Invercargill, where the fences proclaim that the holders are men in many cases who must be holding on to the land to obtain the unearned increment. Land not one whit better has a few miles back been made to ‘ blossom as the rose.’ Invercargill there is no doubt in part owes a somewhat unenviable name to the slovonly framework in which it is thus set.

The Napier Telegraph hears that many of the small settlers in the Seventy-mile Bush have any amount of grass, but no money to buy stock to eat it off. The consequence is that some c>f them are letting tlie grazing of their paddocks to sheepfarmers, while others have sold out their holdings, one settler having Fought up five adjoining small properties.

Mr Nix and others employed with him at Apiti have seen several specimens of a beautifully marked moth of enormous size, says the Feilding Star.. One person, who has been in Amerioa, says it is undoubtedly that known as the mammoth moth in that country. It is described as being banded with gold on wings and body, about four inches long, and five inches across the wings.. Mr Nix hopes to secure specimens, which will be snbmitted to Mr I. W. Kirk, of Wellington.

A Canterbury paper Bays that on the Canterbury plains, to secure good crops, it requires from 3& to 4 inches of rain a month.

The Akaroa Mail says that Mr and Mrs Brown, of Grehan Valley, have had a narrow escape from poisoning. Mr Brown cultivated a New Zealand datur.fi, commonly known as the Le Bon’a Bay lily, and ho and his wife ate it as spinaoh. The result was serious illness, from which, however, both are now recovering. The datura is the plant known as the trinolium, which is smoked for asthma, and is a comparatively virulent poison, rendoring those taking it insensible in a very short space of time, and in smaller doses producing temporary insanity.

After last harvest (says the Ashburton Guavdian) a Wakanui farmer shipped to London, by the Brablock, a consignment ef 2121 sacks of oats. He drew an advance of a shilling a bushel on them besides all shipping charges. Last week he reoeived account gales, and had the satisfaction of receiving a further cheque of nearly £2OO, netting the handsome price of Is 5d per bushel, free of all charges and interest. The best price he could have obtained for the oats, at the time of shipment, was Is 2d a bushel. The oats were Danish.

Meat freezing is about to be - reduced very materially in cost by a new process, introduced by J. and E. Hall, Limited, of London and Dartford, who have been so long known as the makers of the rofrigerating machinery required for this purpose. They have now introduced a patented systom of freezing, for which they are erecting a large plant at Napier, for the North British and Hawkes Bay Freezing Company, by which tho consumption of fuel is reduced to l-sth, and the freezing much more rapidly effected than by the old process of cold dry air. One of the managing direotora—Mr A. Marcet is about to visit this country in December, and we would recommend all our readers who are interested in this subject to see him, and obtain full particulars, which, we are given to understand, he will be very pleased to furnish.

The New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company’s sale of wool passed off very successfully last Friday. Com.petition was animated, and of a catalogue of 847 bales, 510 bales ware cleared under the hammer, or privately immediately after the sales. Prices were decidedly good and an improvement on what was anticipated.

A meeting of tha Executive Committee of the Agricultural and Pastoral Association was held last week, Dr Newman presiding. The question of holding the annual. Bam and Ewe Fair was considered, and it was decided to convene a meeting of the General Committee for the 10th to oonsider the matter. Several accounts in connection with the recent Show were passed for payment, bringing up the total amount of accounts passed for payment since the Show to £2OO. The secretary was instructed to pay over tho prize money in all cases where there was competition with as little delay as possible. Tho question of giving prizes where there was uo competition was deferred for consideration until tho next meeting of the committee. 't was decided to dismiss Mr H. Wilson’s protest with regard to the bacon exhibits, on the ground that it was informal, Mr Wilsou not having compiled with the rules of the Association, The protest male by Mr T. Thatcher with regard to ihe wool exhibits was deferred for consideration until next meeting of the General Committee.