Agricultural and pastoral. FARMING IN SOUTHLAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 928, 11 September 1869, Page 16

Agricultural and pastoral. FARMING IN SOUTHLAND.

Wheat.— We have a good many kinds of wheat grown in the district; but I think they are nearly all too delicate for our climate. A rougher sort, I think would yield more, and, I believe, the flour would not be so likely to get damp. Another thing to be considered —when is the proper season for sowingWheat ? The same question may be asked of any of the different crops, but particularly so of wheat. March or April, if weather and soil suit, is, as far as I know, the bestthough in some cases I have seen a very good crop from wheat sown in September. One advantage derived from early sowing is that the summer heat not being all out 'of the ground, it causes the plants to root well before the worst of the -winter weather sets in, and consequently less seed dies. But it is hardly worth the' trouble saying so much about wheat, for all the price it fetches us, and that is the main thing to be looked to. Babi/Ut. — For the last two years at least, barley has paid much better. We never can compete in the -wheat market with Australia, or even •with the other Provinces of our own colony ; but I believe we will be able to produce barley in quality and quantity superior, and at as moderate a price as any of our neighbours. If demand was steady, and prices remunerative, the barley that would be produced in this district alone would be something wonderful, the soil— rich, dry, and light-being s-peeially adapted to its growth. Will there be demand, and at a payable price ? is the question of questions to the farmer here, for upon the answer depends in a great measure the prosperity or otherwise of this district. So long us we need a 'nip' nowand again, there is no fear but there will besale— aye, and at a good price too, for nothing opens a man's heart like • mountain dew. Oats.— Land that is not clean enough for wheat or barley is dedicated to the growth of oals— and good enough for them for all they've worth, although Scotchmen who have lived on cakes and porridge, must not say too much against old friends. Potatoes. — As to potatoes, I don t know what to say, only they have been, and possibly will bo cheap. I suppose a few for home purposes is all there is any need to grow, unless it is in some convenient place near town, where the driving will cost little. I have seen potatoes planted where oats had been. The land was ploughed a little after harvest, and again at planting time. The po- j tatoes grew a fair emp— five to six tons per acre- and the oats grew too, and would have been -well worth reaping had they not been too late. The cost of keeping such ground clean, added to the other expenses, would be more than the value of the potato crop at present prices, I have heard of a new plan of cleaning the potatoe crop in such ground, and I should say it would be a profitable one if it does the work. It is to put sheep in the field, which will cat the oats, but not the potatoes. , , . . 1 Tdbkips.— The growing of potatoes and turnips, although not so profitable in itself, fertilises the soil for grain by its being well loosened, and turned up to the action of the air Turnips will probably, when the waste lands are mostly taken up, or broken up, receive more attention than they do now, a little seed scattered in newly-ploughed ground, and harrowed in, beinp the most convenient method at present, at least in this district. Gkabs.— l know little or nothing about grass farming, but I have observed that one acre of rye grass, which yielded 40 bushels of firstclass seed the first crop, yielded little but chaff the second ; and that about eighteen acres of rye grass and white clover kept ten or twelve cows, and two or three horses, in firstrate condition during the summer and harvest months, and that calves grew faster on rye crass and white clover than on the native grass. —Mr, John Cumming, before the Western District Farmers' CM.