Mrs. Shand.—The Taieri.—Mr. Homes.

Otago Witness, Issue 1244, 2 October 1875, Page 4

Mrs. Shand. — The Taieri. — Mr. Homes.

The founder of agriculture in Otago was a woman. The hesitancy with which persons with means engaged in agricultural pursuits reminds oiie or the reluctance of Barak to engage with Siaera, and was punished by seeing the glory of his triumphant battle accorded to a woman.

Mrs. Shand was left a widow with a small farm in the suburbs of Dunedin. Her husband, who had just put in the seed, said, with v remarkable prescience, to his wife, " I have put in the crop, but I shall never reap it." Before harvest came round he was cut down and gathered to his fathers. The widow was left with the small sum of £12 after paying all her debts, and on ihis sum she had to provide for a large family, aud be prepared for the exigencies of the harvest. This work was nobly accomplished ; she and htr family braced themselves for the difficulties of a new country. A systematic dairy was begun and carried on for many years ; her crop 3 far more than paid her expense.*. Up to that time it had always been said that "farming would not pay ; " and those who had engaged in it appeared to believe this, as they never relied on it as their only source of livelihood. They were like the angler on the bank 9of streams who i 3 satisfied with a solitary fish, or at moat with small results. But this child's-play would not suit the limited means of a vigorous-minded woman. She felt that she must sink or swim by agriculture — tliat her all was embarked in it, and she resolved to give it a fair trial; and her effort s have been crowned with complete success. She started her eldest son on a farm in the great farming district of the Taieri plain. The mantle of the mother had fallen on the child, and in a short time he surpassed all others as an agriculturist. He farmed five hundred acres of land, mostly wheat, but when the gold rush took place he grew oats largely, and sold them at Bs., 103., and 12s. per bushel. At this moment he is engaged in an important work. The river Taieri sometimes overflows its banks and inundates his land. To prevent this in future, he has, at great expense and labour, erected artificial bankß to dam the river at flood-times. This work has been attended with success.

The farmers of the Taieri plain are in general the best farmers in New Zealand. There is no other district where so many real agriculturists are settled together. It was there that reapingmachines, portable steam thrashing-mills, and double ploughs were first introduced. The crops grown there yield generally from forty to sixty bushels per acre, and when the land is laid down in gra,Sß it is unsurpassed for richness. The Chief Inspector of Sheep on one occasion saw thirteen sheep to the acre on a Taieri field, and the corners of the field had to be cut down for cattle. The soil of the Taieri plains is a vegetable mould, and yields most readily after a few months' fallow; but in. the Tokomairiro plain, and throughout the country generally, a year's fallow is necessary before cropping new land.

Mr. Helmes, a well-known farmer, has 7000 acres, which are now laid down in artificial grass, and stocked with English sheep of the best blood. The New Zealand Land Company have also farmed a great extent of country, which for many miles adorns both sides of the main road from Hampden to Oamavu. The Oamaru settlers have done much for their district, but nature has done more. The climate is the most salubrious in New Zealand ; and standing on the rising ground at Holmes's House, the spectator beholds one of tho fairest spots on earth. Southward he sees thirty miles of rolling downs, highly cultivated and green as emerald ; westward a fine tract of arable land, where the great farms of Messrs. Reid and Menlove are situated. This land runs right back to the base of lofty mountains, whose snow-capped summits rise to an altitude of 7000 feet ; north, the beautiful town of Oamaru is seen on the edge of the sea, beyond the prairie of Waitaki and Canterbury ; and on the east the great Piicific Ocean stretches away in an unbroken expanse of 4000 miles to Cape Horn. A subsoil of lime underlies the whole district, most favourable to the growth of wheat and clover. The climate is favourable to pulmonary disease. The porous nature of the soil drains the country rapidly after rain, and destroys the evaporation that is common to land having a clayey subsoil. Clay is common throughout New Zealand. Perhaps the only disadvantage to which Oamaru is subject is a scarcity of rain, the rainfall being rather less in this district than elsewhere on the sea-coast.

The whaling season has commenced auspiciously this year with the take of two fine right whales at Waikouaiti on Saturday. The fish were sighted early in the morning, and Ellison's and Peacock's boats were promptly manned and started in pursuit, and, after an exuiting chase, fastened to both fish, and soon killed. The prizes are e&timated to be worth £400. One of the whales was tried out on Saturday.