THE STRUGGLES OF A BUSH FARMER.

New Zealand Mail, 21 July 1892, Page 5

THE STRUGGLES OF A BUSH FARMER.

AN INTERESTING LETTER.

(to THE PROPRIETORS N.Z. MAIL.) Dear Sirs, —Please find enclosed a cheque for thirteen shillings aad sixpence (13a 6d), in payment of my subscription to the N.Z. Mail, from Ist June, 1892 to 31st December, 3 892. I have now been a leader of the Mail for over a year, and during that time, as a young settler, it has been my best and truest friend and advisor. I have referred to its pages for information in all mattera connected with the farmj and stock, and whenever a perplexity arises I always got the Mail ; and if I don’t find the information I want in the current number I find it in some of the back numbers, or else in another number a week or two later. I consider the N.Z. Mail by far the best farmers’ and settlers’ paper published in New Zealand, and I always have much pleasure in recommending it to my friends. I came to this district to' settle in May, 1891. I had previously been sheepfarming in the other Island, so that my experience in bush-farming was very meagre. I think I made rather a grave mistakein the first set out, andlalso think that if I had been a careful reader of the Mail before setting out I would have avoided this mistake. What I consider my grave mistake now that I have had a year’s practical experience, and have read several articles in the Mail touching on the subject, was this :—I set out from home with a little capital, certainly not a very large amount, butquite enough togive a young man a start, if rightly used. I scouted the idea of taking up a perpetual lease or a deferred payment section, thinking it was a far better policy to obtain a freehold. The consequence was I bought a section here of 316 acres, partly improved, but with no buildings. Well, as a matter of fact, I was only able to pay about a third of the cost of the land, the remainder remaining on mortgage. So far, so good, but by the time I had erected a house I found that I had expended all my available capital. I set about to make something out of my place, as I had got to pay interest and rates somehow. I bought a lot of cows, and got about 20 milkers out of them, and started to milk for the butter factory, but as I had not got a good yard or shed, I found it not a very pleasant job. As we get a great lot of rain in this district, my yard was soou np to the cows’ udders in mud. I had brought a younger brother with me, who helped me to milk, but as we had to sit in the rain to milk, and as we are living soma distance away, wa could not go in and change, so as a rule we were wet through from early morning till about 8 p.m., five days out of the week, and then getting up about 4 o’clock every morning was a little too much for us, my brother being young and myself not of a very strong constitution ; so that the end of it was I sold out the dairy stock to a neighbour, for which I got a good price.

Since that I have done a little dealing in cattle, buying on bills and selling when they became due. By this means I managed to make enough to keep myself and my brother, and pay interest and rates, while we went on improving the place by falling bush, fencing, planting a two-acre orchard, and slumping, and logging a paddock for hay, and also., building a house, which I did almost-, entirely myself. I was going to let the. work, as I had not had very much experi-. ence in carpentering, but as money was scarce I decided to do it myself, and: succeeded far and away better than I had, expected. I got a neighbour to help to. put up the frames and rafters of the hip--roof—the house being a square fourroomed house, after the diagram given iui

Brett’a Colonists’ Guide. Of course I have not completed it yet, but I do this inside work during wet weather, and as I can afford to buy material. I get a lot of information out of the Mail as to planting and laying out my orchard, in fact I think it was of the Matt, that I first conceived the idea of going in for an orchard. I have planted it well with shelter trees, and I inland as I get on and am able to employ more labour to plant a good deal more, so that I have about seven or eight acres of orchard. I have every faith in the fruit industry; but I conceive from your valuable paper as well as from my own practical experience and observation that it is no use planting any more trees than I am able to look after properly. As well as fruit trees, I have also planted some walnuts. But I am about tired of the method that I have to adopt to make a living, as it takes up a lot of valuable time, and is too uncertain, as, if cattle take a drop, I stand to lose more than I can afford to. So to make ourselves independent of this gambling business, as I style it, I and my brother have started a butchering business. We kill on our own place, and carry round to customers. Of course this is not altogether pleasant on some of our bush roads. Mr brother tells me ho often has to get off the horse and carry the meat past the bad holes, stepping on logs or anything he can get to pot his feet on while the horse scrambles through. The other day he and horse and all went heels over head into a huge mud-hole, and lean assure you he hardly looked a decent settler when he came home, as he was mud from head to foot ; but however it does not do to be too particular in these bush settlements, and as the butchering is turning out better than we had expected and there is every hope of the worst roads being installed next summer, of course we keep .on hopefully. We have also established a piggery in connection with the butchery, iu connection with which I think you would be tfHoing »great service to farmers and settlers if you get your editor to strongly advocate the establishment of bacon factories in suitable centres, as there is a great out-cry that pigs do not pay. I have always advised the farmers to turn their pigs into bacon, as by far the most profitable way to get rid of them, but T think it would be a f ir better plan to have bacon factories where the farmers could s. nd their pigs and get a good and sure return for them ; and the factories •would be ab'e to turn out a far better article, and of a more uniform quality than the farmers would by curing their own. As what the Mail advoca ea i* generally carried out in the long run, I think it will be conferring another blessing on the •settlers by advocating the establishment •of bacon factories. I am also starting a poultry yard, which, I hope, by the guidance of the Mail to make a successful vbusiness in tinn As another moans to progress, I am godng to erect a good" cowshed and yard and sstarl milking for the f«e'ory again on A much larger scale. A neighbour lias offered to find sixty cows and grass for rthem on the condition that I pay him so -much per cow for the season, and as I think this is a very good idea for a settler to get on whose capital is limite 1, I think II will accept his offer and would recomaneud this plan to others in a similar position, as of course T get all the profits from the cows’ milk and the calves besides and only have to pay about one third of the full profit to the owner. I have the expense of milking it is tru9 and erecting a shed and I purpose raising a a little more money on the section to get the outfit and about twenty cows of my own to milk along with the others. I need not go into figures to show you that 1 will do very well out of it, if I have .pjrdinary success, and 1 think that is about

all I have undertaken for the present to make myself independent. My brother will take complete charge of the butchering if I go in for the milking, and if all turns out as well as I calculate it will after very careful consideration, I hope to be in a fair way to prosperity next year and trust this will be the last winter of our bachelor life. Of course you will allow a little romance oven iu a bushfeller’s life.

Well sir, having gone so far and said so much about myself and my prospects, if you will have the patience to read, I will just make a few remarks in regard to this district and I believe you will give a ready ear to a settler though I can’t boast of much experience. Begin with baking the whole of Taranaki, as far as I have had experience, the progress made within the last twelve months is something wonderful and if we can take it for granted that other parts of the Colony hive made similar progress, there is plenty of proof in the statement I have often seen in the Mail, that the Colony is in a far better state of prosperity, financial soundness, than ever it has been before and that in spite of the cry that the policy of the present government was driving the Colony to ruin. Take for instance this little township of Kaponga, which is situated almost one might say, in the heart of the bush, about six or seven miles from the base of Mount Egmont and about ten miles from Manaia. When I came here a little more than a year ago, there were in the township two stores, one butcher’s shop and one small fruit shop. We only got our mail twice a week and there was not a semblance of metal on the streets and main roads. Now we have nicely metalled streets and footpaths, a metalled road to Manaia. We get our mail in and out four times a week, have a telephone connection with Elbham ; a public school has been opened, with 40 children on the roll ; one of the best auction marts in the county has been erected by a Manaia firm ; iu the township we have a large hotel built and opened ; a blacksmith’s shop ; a shoemaker’s shop ; a town hall (I forgot to state there was a church when I came), and several new dwelling houses have been erected elose to the township, and settlement has gone on apace. Every available piece of land has been taken up, and hundreds of acres have been fallen, burnt, grassed, and fenced. That is one year’s progress, and every other new settlement has advanced equally with this. One other improvement I didn’t mention, that is the establishment this winter of a Literary and Debating Socie'y, and also a gymnasium. This is all sound and lasting progress, so I think those papers that have taken upon themselves the bisk to persuade the people that New Zealand is being ruined by the policy of the present Government have no doubt a very up-hill way to travel, and their endeavours cannot but be a miserable failure. There can be no doubt that dairying will ba the chief industry all through this district, and fruit growing will follow o'o - • in its steps. A great number of n » butter factories are being erected in U Ifareut parts of the district, and also t. ■ oheese factories. This shows very pi tio'y that both settlers and capitalists have every confidence in the dairying business. I think the Mail has been the means of doing a great deal to forward the interests of this industry by giving a lot of useful information and by advocating the proper packing and grading of butter and cheese before it i 3 shipped.

As regards the fruit industry, people seem a little backward in planting, partly on account of the damage done to apples by blights, &c , and partly because a great many have not faith in the home markets for our fruit. What we want, I think, is a market for our small fruit, and such fruit as cannot easily be shipped to

London, but can easily bo grown here. This might be met by jam factories, provided that a payable market could be got for the jam. And then again there is another industry, which I think ought to grow into importance, that is the making of colonial wines, or, I should say, New Zealand wines. I visited Mr It. Smita’s nursery at Manaia the other day, and lie has a wine factory in connection with the nursery, where he manufactures gooseberry, currant, cherry and peach wine 3, also cider. He tells me he has every confidence in the industry, that it only wants to get a name, and the wines, which are from pure fruit, would find a ready market both at Home and abroad. He would be able to take as much of this kind of fruit at a good price as we could grow, but of course I have no information as to the market obtainable for this industry than of the jam industry, but, of course, as a I take a lot of interest in anything that is likely to be helpful to farmers, and I sincerely hope that Mr Smith’s success will quite equal his expectations, and that similar factories will spring up in other centres. If your paper can give any information or advice on the matter I am sure your readers will all be thankful for it.

Now, sir, I think I must conclude, as I find I have written much more than I intended doing, and I suspect your literary editor would say 1 should condense more. However I don’t pretend to be anything of a writer, and as this is my first letter I know you will excuse its length and weaknesses. I hope that l will be able to give more valuable advice to my fellow fanners through the Mail and other papers when I have become more experienced. If you think that any suggestions or information I have given are worth publishing, I am sure you are very welcome to hand them in to your editor, as I shall be only too glad to be of service to my fellow men in ever such a humble way. If you do me the honour to make use of any part of this letter I will try and write again at some future time.. Wishing you every success with the Mail, and that I and others may learn a deal more from your valuable paper. I remain, yours respectfully, Richd. A., farmer. Kaponga, Taranaki, July 10.