FARMING IN THE PAST AND FUTURE.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1095, 24 February 1893, Page 5

FARMING IN THE PAST AND FUTURE.

The lot of the farmer is not always a happy one. The calling has its pleasures as well as its drawbacks. Generally speaking, ho is more contented and less ambitious than the city resident. This contentment contributes in no small way to the happiness and healthiness which is so largely characteristic of the rural population. The farmer is a social democrat, for he rarsly believes in those nice distinctions whioh s 'ciety makes when dividing the town residents into those innumerable cliques, which are so jealous of each other. The farmer cannot go to the theatre, or the lecture hall, as often as the city dweller, and bis wife cannot gratify her taste for dress by such frequent visits to the draper’s or the milliner’s as her sisters in the town ; but this does not make country life anything the less enjoyable. The life of the agriculturist is the most honourable of all professions. It was started in the cradle of the human race, and ever since the tiller of the soil has been the mainstay of mankind. Without him there can bo no prosperity ; without him existence is almost impossible, save in some favoured isles of the tropics, where nature supplies all the wants of man, without any exertion on his part. A great many people nowadays are inclined to look down on agriculture as a profession, since it does not permit those who follow it to wear black suits and collars of abnormal height on working days. We cannot shut our eyes to the fact that too many of the risinggeneration are too prone to cultivate a taste for the cramped life and unhealthy air of the shop or counting house, in preference to the freedom and healthy surroundings of the agriculturist. Perhaps this may be due to the fact that in the past the dullard was considered good enough to be a firmer, whilst only the brightest and sharpest of intellects were considered suited for the bustle of city life. This may be an accurate estimate of the situation in the past, but it will not be so in the future. The successful farmer of the coming generation must not alone be hardworking and industrious, but he must be a man of a certain amount of scientific attainments, and be aEo possessed of a varied stock of commercial knowledge. Farming in the past has beon carried on very often in a haphazard manner. This applies to England as well as the colonies. If wheat carried a high price, the farmer grow wheat, whether his land was suited for it or not. Did the supply of the ceieal be so great that the price became extremely low then be rushed to the other* - extreme, sowed his land with grass, and turned his attention to wool aud mutton growing. Then came another re action, and before he could profi-ably adapt his holding to the new order of things, he fell into the hands of the money-lender, nr large financial institution, with the result which only too many in Now Zealand have had a practical and all too disagreeable experience. And again the high prices prevailing for cereals have often induced the careless, or ignorant, or greedy farmer to take crop after crop off his land, without ever taking into consideration that the soil required something in return for the large quantities of its most valuable constituents, which it generously and ungrudgingly contributed to the growth if those annual crops. In the past, too, in this colony, the agriculturist’s object was not to settle down and make a home for himself, but to make a fortune in as short and as inexpensive a manner possible. Ho was not to be a permanent [ resident, he was only to be a sojourner, *

and as such his residence, his fencing, his farming, his surroundings wore of the most primitive order. His object was to make money as quickly as he could, and his ambition not to spend it in the country of his adoption, but in the land of his birth. Of course it did not always happen that he succeeded iu his endeavours to amass wealth. His greed was greater than his discretion or commercial knowledge, and in his desire to grasp too much he lost all. Instead of being content with the area of land, which ho would be able to manage from a financial standpoint, he launched out on all sides, and took extensive tracts, for which he was obliged to borrow large sums. Had he the commercial knowledge requisite, he would have readily seen from the start that land even at the bast of times was not ablo to give a margin of profit equal to the obligations incurred by him. Ifthe agriculturist of the past made these and many other mistakes and suffered accordingly, even when he had so few competitors for the trade of Great Briuin, how much more likely is it that he will be the victim of his own inexperience in the future, when competition will be much keener, profits reduced to a fraction of what they have boon, and the soil less generous. It is for these and many other reasons, which it is not necessary now to enumoralo, that it will be requisite that the old order of things should be changed. The farmer must not alone understand the nature of the soil which he cultivates, its constituents, and what crops are likely to succeed on it, but he must also make himself conversant with the constituents of the crops, and what amount of nourishment they demand from the land, so that these may be given back again in the form of manures or fertilisers. Some crops take a large amount of one thing and others a large amount of another, and in the same way a particular manure is rich in one constituent, whilst another has a larger percentage of something else. Then again it will be necessary for the farmer to have a certain acquaintance with the commercial knowledge which is now so widely diffused by means of cur mail and telegraphic communication with all paris of the civilised world. He must study the wants of various people. He must keep himself conversant with the prices current in the different commercial centres. He ought to have a fair idea of the probable area of land ardor crop in those countries that are in competition with him, and where possible, regulate his productions. Farm ing will require more brains and less muscle in the.-future thin in the past. Science is effecting a radical alteration in all our modes of life. Man, in making nature subservient to his wishes, is les sening the wear aud tear of his physical faculties, but at the same time his intellect is sharpened and his mental powers aro more exercised. As the farmer is the leader of our industrial factors, he too must be in the van of progress and keep pace with the times.

The following are a few things which, if properly carried out, will help to a great extent the sale of any wool: —1. That the wool is thoroughly skirted. 2. Be careful that the bale has little or no fibres about it —proper bales are singed inside before using, in which state they can be bought. Buyers keep clear of bad bales to a certain extent, as the fibres act very much like kemp. 3. Do not press too much in a bale, a very important thing it is to remember. 4. Be particularly careful that the pressing floor is kept thoroughly clean. Have a bag hung up and insist on all strings, &c., being placed in it. 5. Brand your bales neatly and distinctly; station name on top of the side in a semi-circle, and always brand what is inside the bale. 6. On no account allow second cuts on the shearing floor; prefer rather that it is left on the sheep. 7. Don’t brand with tar sheep or bales,