ESSENTIAL CONDITIONS FOR GOOD FARMING.

Oamaru Mail, Volume X, Issue 3607, 28 August 1886, Page 2

ESSENTIAL CONDITIONS FOR GOOD FARMING.

The following paper was wad by Mr J. Church at a meetiDg of the Farmers' Club this afternoon :

There are certain essential conditions that He at the very foundation of buoccbsful agriculture. These may be divided into economic and natural. Under the head of economic conditions I will first refer to security of tenure, sufficiency of capital, and skill. These are, like tho three R's of education, imperatively requisite. Unless these are possessed in some moderate degree by our farmers it will be in vain that we shall look for good j farming—a term always to my mind synonymous with profitable farming. It is difficult to assign the exact proportion of importance that may be given to any one of these conditions. They are so closely connected that they are in a sense equally necessary to success ; but still, withont security of tenure, the farmer with a fair share of the other two would be disinclined to waste the one and risk the other ; and it may, therefore, be assumed that security of tenure on reasonable terms is fundamentally the most necessary for the permanent profit of tho farming oommunity. It is impossible to deny that Bince the fall in the price of grain the farmers of the colony have' to carry on business under difficulties to whioh they have not been accustomed ; and to mnny of them these hard times mean very serions hardships, if not absolute ruin. But in the case of the larger portion of these last, the cause of their hard and poor position may be ascribed to themselves, and to the Government, in no small degree, for permitting, if not directly encouraging, the gambling with the publio lands of the oolony. Men having saved a few pounds by labor and economy were tempted to take up land for farming and become their own masters, under the mistaken belief that with arduous manual toil they could draw from the generous soil a return of profit to make up the inadequate capital with whioh they too soon started. When times were good and the prious of grain were remunerative to a considerable extent beyond the aotual outlay in labor, «fto., there was hope, if not absolute certainty; that by persevering industry and parsimonious thrift they would establish a home and have a farm free from debt, and therefore having a aeouro tenure. But what a large proportion of our settlers were in the midst of this hazardous enterprise when the evil times came ! The kind of farming they of neooßsity had to adopt and follow was exhaustive and destructive ; and hence when tho untoward change came the struggling farmers were in a position of increased difficulty with their memiß of overcoming it weakened. An exhausted and dirty farm with a poor occupier in a time of low prices and little demand for its produoe is a melancholy spectacle, and one's hopes of the farmer escaping bankruptcy are of the weakest nature. Such is an accurate description of a very large number of farmers in Canterbury and Otago, and it is., no wonder there is a pry for cheap money, and an appeal to Yogel and other gods of finance for help ; to keep them afloat. Suoh men not only, 'however, started to farm without oipitiil—a thing if done in trade or business justly regarded as bordering upon criminality but many of them with that delusion so common amongst our socalled politicians, thought that farming was an employment requiring no brains, no training, no experience, and that if once upon the land its management would come as a matter of course. A great number of the cultivators of the soil in New Zealand were antecedently engaged in sedentary trades and occupations, and until they turned over in some rude way the the first sod of virgin soil' upoh their dearly cherished acquisition of a. piece of land, they probably knew as rauoh of farming as a sailor now. knows of the mysteries of the Finanoial Statement of Sir Julius Vogel. : In fact, tile lands of the colony, so lavishly and foolishly disposed of, and the proceeds so criminally squandered, are occupied, and nominally, at least, owned in perpetuity by experimental farmers. Some, no doubt, gifted with intelligence and shrewd common sense, have acquired,, at some expense one may be certain, a good praotical r acquaintance with the best and most profitable systems of working their land and managing stook. But the bulk of;those whose first knowledge of farming has been gained on their own farms, are really to be pitied in suoh times,.for they cannot easily abandon the comparatively simple plan of sowing and reaping and arrange for a more complex system of mixed husbandry, involving an intimate knowledge of stook and the higher branohes of good cultivation. Oar politicians and the mere literary men of the press are seriously to blame for much that is anomalous in the condition of onr farmers and the non-progressive nature of New Zealand agriculture. Their parrotcry and monotonous and unreasoning advice was ever the same, —" Get the people on the land." No donbt it is desirable that these lands should be properly utilized, and it is apparent to those who know- what farmers should bo, that it would have been better for the land, the colony, and the occupiers themselves had they still been laborers or working at their own special : trades. It seems marvellous to me that men are taught to believe that the art of agriculture, requiring peouliar skill, long training and experience, is more easily entered upon than the common trades of a oarpenter, shoemaker, or other meohanioal employ-ment-trades that we know involve apprenticeship and praotioe. Would it not be considered absurd to aßk a man accustomed to the plough to become a tailor or a painter without knowledge or training 1 And yet it is this very absurdity we daily perpetuate by telling men " to go on the land " when they know not the difference between a plough and a harrow, nor wheat from barley. These experimental farmers are to be pitied, but they cannot be helped. But one great cause of the. present unfortunate position of many farmers forms a serious indictment against tho Governments of the colony in past years. When were started on a career of wild extravagance, publicly and privately, by the borrowing policy of Mr Vogel in 1870, speculation in land was a mania in a short time afterwards. Land was bought not for settlement and cultivation, but to soil again at a profit. These speodlative purchasers at second hand sold again for another profit, and so on nntil the crisis came, when the last buyer, probably (a bona fide farmer, was saddled with a farm far above its eoonomio value. Governments in these colonies may be blamed for parting with the land of the people at all; but, at all events, they were reokless to absolute criminality in ever allowing'land to become an artiole of common traffio like sugar and tea. This lex system of men being allowed to buy and sell the people's land enabled schemers and landsharks to enrich themselves without the exercise of either industry, skill, or capital, and has ultimately led to the positive evil of an impoverished agricultural class whose whole labor is engaged in meeting the calls of interest for loans on their fa/ma loans granted at the time of the mania, and now ic'ar beyond the selling value of their farms. It is in such cases, and they are numerous, enough, that the element of insecurity of tenure is introduced, for men in suoh positions of dependency on mortgagees are liable to be deprived of their farms Bbould they fail to meet the ever-reoarring payments of interest—payments, as has been shown, beyond their ability to make out of the profits of their farms. Amongst the old settlers who got their land direofc from the Government and who were nnder little necessity to borrow extravagantly on their land, there are only f ery few who are now in difficulties. They indeed may

cot realise muslt profit, if any, from their cultivation, hot they are far from being jssrd pressed, and would disdain being sav-ng tba petitioners for loans of cheap money from or through the State. There are, of course, instances where old settlers who were comfortably _ situated on their first selections were seiaed with theprevaUingfrailtyof "bastingtoberich," and who rnahed into land buying, coming to grief from attempting to grasp more than they could safely hold. A great controversy Is still going on as to the relative advantages of private property id bad and the leasing principle. There would be an great objection to the Governments of the colonies selling the land in moderate sized blocks to bona fide occupiers and cultivators, but when they were permitted to alienate the lands of the people wholesale and with no provision for settlement and use, but to mere ■peculators, an evil practice was introduced, of the bad fruits of which we are only yet experiencing a small sample. The leasing of lands at a moderate rental on a secure tenure so long as they were occupied would at least have prevented the unprofitable outlay of capital for the purchase, and would have enabled the occupiers to devote their money to the work of cultivation and improvement. It is because of the existence of a clws of tenants with capital in the Old Country that agriculture has progressed to the high state of perfection it bus attained, for in leaning a farm they got the nae of the landlord's capital at a moderate rate whil>their own was devoted legitimately to the I purposes of their profession. But indi-| vidual landlordism is most objectionable, and now that the whole circumstances of agricultural production are changed, the rents and conditions are itfcb as to entail ruin on the tenant farmers, and we find that a revolution is pending in Great Britain in connection with the whole | system of land holding. But whether by ■ale for cash, or on deferred payments, or by teasing, it may be laid down as an axiom, that farmers should be possessed of a sufficiency of capital before they think of farming; snch an amount at leant as would obviate the necessity for recourse to the money lender—a dire alternative that in nine cases out of ten lands the unfortunate borrower in the bankruptcy court, or in such a position of dependency that be cannot call the farm his own, nor the stock thereon. At Home the standard of capital required for a farm ia much higher than iu the colonies, the figure g-nerally being from L 7 to LlO per acre, but in New Zealand in ordinary circumstances and on a fair soil a capital of, «ay, from L2 to L 5 per acre would be considered adequate, if so be the farmer was careful and had not to loam bis badness from bis own experience. A moderate ami nut borrowed on the land may be allowable and probably redeemable with ordinary care and industry; but wheo farmers are forced to go to the finance companies or the banks for cash to carry on from year to year, such men are letter oat of farming. It is the prevalence of this custom of farming with borrowed money at high rates of interest and commissions for management that is ruining the farming interest and partly cnusing the depression in all other trades. When I mainUin tba: skill is an essential requisite for good farming, I do not mtan the exact theoretical knowledge of the principles of agriculture, although that is not to be despised, but such a degree of practical experience of its details as is necessary is every trade or profession. The unavailing complaints to which I have often listened from men who bave farming without knowledge and experience tare been painful, and have made me flacs a high estimate on the necessity for men possessing these requisites before tiny ventured in the business. The harming positions of mortgagors on farms fa these times, when there are small lopes of removing the incubus of &bt t has convinced me that such men Have not that security of tenure which h requisite for confident progression.

I win now refer to the essential conditions which I designate natural. The fanner may practise his profession under moat satisfactory circumstances aa regards the three economic conditions to which your attention has been drawn, bnt m the absence of one or more of the natural conditions to be now discussed his labor, experience, and capital may return a most inadequate profit, if indeed he does not incur a loss. The soil mast contain a sufficiency of plant food, and that food most be, for maturing particular plants to perfection, appropriate to the constitution of the plants. The climate most be favorable, for if this be either too dry or too wat, extremely hot or eytremely cold, with heavy blasting winds or with no free circulation of the air, there will be comparative failure, notwithstanding that other conditions are favorable. And thirdly, the soil must either be naturally in a suitable mechanical condition or it must be made so by skilfully applied labor, for it must be evident that an impenetrable compressed clay soil or a loose drifting sand is incompatible with the healthy vigorous growth of plants. The farmers of New Zealand have, in a vast majority of districts, entered npon their work of producing the various crops of the farm, possessing the first, and not the least important natural condition—a full ■apply of plant food in the soil. Tbe virgin soil of this country in many places was on its first being broken up of the richest description, and it was therefore so marvel that the eye of the husbandman was gladdened with a moat abundant harvest—the first fruits of a grateful soil. It was no mere rhetorical flourish of sen'Jmeat when one of our first pioneers said you had only " to tickle the land with a hoe, to make it laugh with a harvest." It should have been the business of men who were thus highly fivored of Providence to have endeavored in every possible way to have maintained the fertility of the soil, but tco many of them tare, with a fatuity begotton of ignorance, greed, and it may be, of necessity, deteriorated the productive powers of the land by successive cropping of exhaustive plaots tod by never allowing it to recuperate Its capabilities by restorative or cleansing craps. The only method of restoration is by pasturage, and that in too many instances has been executed and conducted on the moat unintelligent and illiberal principles, which I shall not stay to illustrate. The soils of many farms bave_ been regarded as exhauatless banks of issue, sod a resort to a more common sense treatment of their capital, the land, baa been forced upon them by the ominous sod inexorable initials—namely, N.S.F. No man can take out of land in the form of a profitable product, if there be not in tbe soil tbe chemicals wherewith to nourish it, any more than a man can reasonably expect to draw upon a bank if he does not keep up a sufficiency of foods to meet his demand. But this wonderful feat of perpetual drafts upon tbe soil is just what nosy unintelligent farmers essay to perform, and with one common and inevitable result that the drafts are sooner or later dishonored. It may be that the late low Prices for grain have prevented the greedy *nd needy of our farmers from ruining themselves and their farms by the unceaskg growth of cereals. The compulsory cessation of grain growing for a shart Period has given the soil a chance of restoration to a degree of fertility neceaBfy for profitable cropping when the prices are sufficient to induce a return for th.it kind of farming. The miserably Meagre yields of Sooth Australia are •nfficient evidence that the senseless kind «f agriculture there practised is productive of the dire evil of destroy- ™ 7 the first essential natural condition for profitable fanning the requisite ■apply of wneat plant food. All ths other material and economic con* tttfoia are as they were in that colony,

bu*. the persistent cultivation of wheat in that manner and with the smallest degree of labor has reduced the soil to the in* capable state of perfecting a very little more than the seed sown. Such a notorious and painful example of ignorant cultivation should be shunned by every farmer who hss any desire to leave a heritage of capability to his sons. The robbery of the soil of its plint food cm only be practised with impunity by the farmer who can decamp with the proceeds to other lands and there commence another career on the same lines. Bat the settled farmers of this colony cannot do this, and it is therefore incambent upon them to know how to preserve the fertility of their land, and if from any causes they have reason to apprehend a deficiency of plant food, they should find out how most economically and efficiently to furnish it by manuring and other means. This kind of knowledge does not come intuitively to any nun. It is either acquired by long and often dearly bought experience, or it is gathered from the recorded experience of others. One of the chief benefits of Farmers' Clubs, and of agricultural papers duly pondered, is the knowledge that can be so readily got in the discussion and the study of other men's experiences and observation. There is no lack of such valuable opportunities now, and farmers who neglect either or both are losers by their indifference. As in regard to fertility of soil, bo with j respect to the climatic condition affecting the farmers of New Zealand, the asser- ■ tkn can, with a few exceptions, be made that few countries are so favorably situated. The rainfall is daring mo3t years of sufficient quantity for the vigorous growth of the crops generally cultivated. The temperature is neither too high nor too low. The winds are, except an occasional northwester, of just sufficient velocity to promote a free circulation of air amongst the leaves of the crops—a circulation of air of most extraordinary influence in forwarding plants to perfec'ion. The leaf of a plant forma a moat interesting object of study, for an unceasing busy work is forever going on there. On the under side of a leaf there are the stomata—little mouths—of which there are from 1000 to 10,000 to the square inch, and by means of these the work of building up the plant gne3 on. But I mast refrain from farther allußton to the physiology of the plant. In so far as climate is concerned, man is but a helpless animal at beat, and all he can do is to avail himself of the knowledge of how to grow such crops as are appropriate to differing climatic conditions, and to modify or improve the climate by drainage, tree planting, dtc Plants are much more largely indebted to the air for their sustenance and growth than many farmers imagine or believe. Many of them fancy that their puny efforts of scratching the soil and supplying manures, oftcimes of unknown quality and infinitesimal doses, are mainly productive of the harvests they reap, while in fact the "wind blowing where it listetb " is building up, unknown to them, the fabric of the plants upon which they depend for their profits. The carbon nnd nitrogen essential to all plants are chit fly derived from the air and water and from the two working chemically on each other. But the skill and industry of the farmer can do wonders in the treatment of the soil in so far as its mechanical condition it concerned. There are soils of all descriptions in this colony, as in most countries of any extent. These vary from the stiff clay to the sterile sand and the worthless shingle beds with a thin covering of alluvial earth. The black tarry soil grows excellent wheat, and the light loam or sharp soil producees large crops of turnips and barley of superior quality, while the drifting sand or shingle will barely cover itself with a stunted withered grass. All these soils are susceptible of great improvement on their natural state. It is in this direction where many of the New Zealand farmers fail to exercise their skill and industry. The tarry clays, frequently i overlaying a calcareous subioil, are not so regularly productive as they might be from inadequate working, and Bometimes, from injudicious cultivation when they are too wet or too dry. I have on several occasions seen soils of this description producing only very poor crops, arising, not from a deficiency of chemical constituents but from a bad mechanicil state. It has frequently surprised me to hear practical farmers affirming that the soil was exhausted when possibly the land in question bad only grown a few crops, whereas the slightest examination demon* strated that a little extra deep culture would have produced other and more favorable results. A second crop of wbeat , taken for instance after such land had been ploughed shallow, with a large covering of rough stubble ploughed under and a dry winter season following, could not be reasonably expected to grow well should the spring or summer prove droughty. I was amused lately with the record of the experience of a professor of chemistry, who as a chemist is well and favorably known in the colony, trying, by a full supply of all the essential elements of the crop dictated by his knowledge, to grow a crop, and complaining of the result. I have not the slightest doubt the mechanical condition of the land was mainly to blame for his poor unsatisfactory crop. A chemist may be good in his own sphere, and chemistry has doubtless been of infinite service to agriculture, but it is not often that a chemist is a good farmer. The fall benefits of the science of chemistry will never be realised until the two are better proportioned—that is, science with practice. There are clayey soils again of stubborn tenacity and some with super* fluous moisture that nothing bnt drainage will improve, and the deration consequent upon this operation. The loamy and < lighter soils are easier of management, , and here compression is frequently needfn'. Snch soils are most readily improved by the feeding off of turnips by sheep and by moderate cropping ofjgrain. A great amount of good ctn be done to sandy soils that are naturally deficient of fertilising elements by dressings of snitable chemical manures to pasture grasses appropriate to such soils, and by little or no cultivation. . I have given, considering the time at my ' disposal, a mere sketch of what conld be said on this important and interesting ; subject; but my remarks, I traat, will lead farmers to give more attention to the conditions affecting their employment that < are within their power to modify or im- 1 prove.