The Farm. CHATS WITH THE FARMERS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1341, 11 August 1877, Page 18

The Farm. CHATS WITH THE FARMERS.

A VISIT TO THE ESTATE OF 3IR JOHN REID, ELDEBSLIE, WAIAItEKA VALLEY.

Mr Reid, vre believe, is a native of Stirlingshire, Scotland. He came to New Zealand in 1863, and was engaged in mercantile pursuits in Dunedin till 1873, when he retired from business in order, he might have the whole of his time ;at his disposal for the development of his property in the Waiareka Valley. This property is bounded on the west by the Kakanui river, to which it has a frontage of ten miles, where it meets the estates of Messrs. W. H. Teschemaker, Dr. Webster, Oakden and Brown, and Borton and McMaster. On the north-east it is bounded by the main district road from Oamaru to the Tables,- the Waiarekariver, and the Windsor Park estate. The total area i 3 between seventeen and eighteen thousand acres in one compact block, which comprises a considerable portion of four districts, viz., Oamaru, Xauroo, Awamoko, and Marewhenua. Itis situated in the valley of the Waiareka, . seven miles in a direct lino from the port' of Oamaru. The Waiareka railway passes through the ' property, and there is- a station at the woolshed, which is nine miles distance by rail from Oamaru. This line is a very great convenience, and will be much more so when a sufficient supply of rolling stock can be had to convey the produce to Oamarn. During the past j season' the advantages* were very much reduced through a want of trucks. The j land consists of rich, rolling downs on a limestone formation, generally at an altitude of one hundred and fifty feet ; above sea level. The top soil consists of rich, black vegetable mould, underneath which lies a dark brown- subsoil of clay I end sand, strongly impregnated with lime. This, when deeply ploughed and mixed with the upper soil,' makes a fine sharp bed for. the growth of artificial grasses. As much as sixty-five bushels of wheat, | eighty bushels of oats, and seventy bushels of barley, have been raised in favourable seasons. The general average, however, is forty to iqrty-five bushels of wheat, fifty to sixty of oats, and fifty of barley. Potatoes dp very well ; as high \ a yield as twenty tons per acre having j been obtained from new land without any. manure. The whole estate is surrounded by fericesj and divided into paddocks. There are over one hundred and ■ sixty miles of fencing, chiefly of wire and Tasrnanian po3ts, the soil being too friable for -sod walls. .. , ', . ', ' The system of management upon thißi estate is a most excellent one, and it differs from that of " any of our other' landholders that we have heard of, ' Mr Reid keep 3 about one thousand acres in, crop himself, and lets two thousand acres every year to tenants for two seasons, who own teams and portable houses.They contract to plough the land twice and sow wheat the first year, and. oats or barley the second, paying, 255. per acre, for the first crop, and 15s. per acre for the second. These contractors, of' course, like all occupiers of the soil, have risks to incur; they are at the ..mercy of the seasons and the markets — but they are their own masters; and ,'we JieaTt that, on the whole, they have done remarkably well. After the two crops, the laud is ploughed and sown with rape, and then fed off with sheep. After that, it is let for another season for . a crop of wheat, the rent paid being '655. per acre, being ploughed only once. It is then 1 sown again with rape and fed off. It has then a .shallow ploughing, and is laid down with rye gras3, clover, &c, at tho' rate of fifty pounds vrei»ht to ths acre, and allowed to lie for five or six yeard. The same operation is then repealed, without decreasing the fertility of the soil. Ten thousand acres have bet>n treated in this manner. Over two thousand acres were in rape last season, and are now sown in wheat. Mr Reid is now ploughing one thousand acres of virgin soil, which will be sown this month (August) with oats. Thi3 will make food for eleven thousand ewes and their lambs, .md wilf bo fed at intervals up to the end of March, when it will be ploughed and sown with winter wheat. Owing to the sweetness and fertility of tho soil, a- good crop. of oats can be relied upon. It affords a large amount of feed, and is a grca b improvement upon the plan of leaving the land fallow, and afterwards cros3-ploughing. The oats are not allowed to seed, and the land derives great benefit from tho trampling and manuring which it receives from the sheep. The next year a crop nf oats or barley is taken. The laud is then thoroughly worked and sown with rape, which is eaten off by sheep during the summer. It is then ploughed, and another grain crop is taken, and after another thorough working it is _agaiu sown with rape and fed off, after which it is ploughed and' sown down '.with' artificial grasses, and depastured for five years or thereabouts, the length :of time depending upon whether the pasture remains good or otherwise.' By this method all exhaustion of tho laud is prevented. In a favourable season (i.e., a moist one) turnips sown broadcast may be substituted for rape. About eleven thousand acres are now in cultivation and English grasses. The whole of the remainder of the land will be broken up during the next four years.

Ten years ago, when on a visit to Scotland, Mr Reid selected about twenty diffdrenfc kinds of the moat valuable pasture grasse3, consistingjof Poas, Fescues, Trefoils, &c, and liad them sown on wellprepared land in separate pieces of from

one to ten acres, with the view of ascertaining what kinds were most suitable for the soil- and climate. He found that only a few of the finer kinds attained anything like a vigorous growth. The commoner grasses, , such, as cocksfoot, Timothy, perennial and Italian rye grass, Alsyke, cow grass, red or'white clovers, being the only kincla which seemed Avorth BOirinc. The mixture, which he now uses is as folio ws, viz., twenty pound perennial rye grass, eight to ten pounds Italian ditto, three pounds Alsyke clover, two pounds cow gra,3s, one pound English red clover, two pounds'. Timothy (more, than .this where moist), three .pounds cocksfoot, one pound sheep's parsley. He at one time sowed prairie grass very extensively, and found it to do uncommonly well. , One field which he sowed for the purpose of. getting a crop of seed, gave ninety • bushela of seed per acre ' over an area of one hundred and, forty-six acres.' The straw .thrashed from this was all consumed by cattle. As it 'contains »■ good amount of saccharine matter, it gives a large quantity of feed during the first year, and fair pasture during the second ; but after that its growth is not vigorous until the land comes to be broken up again, when it grows as freely as ever without re-sow-ing : in fact, this is the greatest objection to it on wheat-growing land, as it grows bo thoroughly among the wheat that it materially injures the crop ; and as it is most difficult to eradicate, Mr Reid is of opinion that it should not be sown on land which is likely to be used for grain growing. As a pasture grass, however, there is none on-whieh stock thrive better, ,or for which they have a keener relish. ;Mr Reid considers that Timothy is one of the best and most profitable grasses to grow .where the land is tolerably moist ;. but for dry sheep ridges, Cocksfoot seems to be the only grass which can hold its own during the" dry summers of the Oamaru (district. ' , \ Mr Reid, we have been informed;' was the first in the district to use the doublefurrow plough, which has now entirely superseded the swing, plough .upon this Jand. He used oue of. Howard's make in. 1869. . The year following, the patent double-furrow, with • the angular wheel, ,was used' by Mr Reid and his contractors, with teams of three, or four, strong horses. Mr Reid uses', a three-, furrow plough, made in. Oamaru,' with four horses, in stubble, and it answers iwell. Six years ago he used a six-furrow, made by'Ogilvie, of .Oamaru, with sixteen' bullocks for, two "seasons. It'was^ather unwieldy however, .and he found that he bould do more with two throe-furrows ■than with .one 'of six. On some of ■hisiaiid he "uses a large' double-furrow 'withja sQDso'iler. It turns, a furrow of inches deep, by fourteen inches wide, and stirs up the ground underneath to a further depth of ten to twelve inches, but without turning it up to the' surface. This work was done by a team of bullocks for tree-planting. It is surprising to notice- with what ease the-double-fur-row is Used in ploughing 1 round and over the hills in this district. We see it stated that great advantage is experienced in Victoria in the use of the double and three-furrow ploughs, and. some of the farmers now use the five-furrow. Three' (strong horses in a three-furrow- plough' ban turn over four acres in a day.

The climate in this valley is most enjoyable, summer and winter. It is milder and much drier than 1 that of the districts around Dunedin. The only fault to find with it ia its occasional dryneas in siiniiner, which affect 3 .the feed and water supply. In all the paddocks into which the estate ia divided dams are made which aro supplied with, water by springs and running stroams. One of tliesa dams on the Waiareka covers five acres. Iron pipes have been laid down from a peimahent dam to the house, a distance of halfa-mile. As there is a fall of twentyaix feet there ia a good pressure, and the water in dry seasons will be found of great use. ' •,- There are about sixty head of horned, cattle of the shorthorn breed, and only about a dozen horses, xaust 6i the ploughing being done by contract. There are two fine stud flocks — one of pure Leiceaters — one hundred ewes — and one of pure Lincoln8 — two hundred ewes — besides two hundred young ewes. The general flock consists of twenty-one thousand (21,000) half and three - quarter Leicester ewes crossed with the Lincoln rain. It is thought that this will be the sheep for the district. It combines the early fattening properties of the Leicester with the lustrous heavy fleece of tho Lincoln. A large number of the stud are imported Lincohi3 from the celebrated Kirkham flocks., Mr Reid sends about; eight thousand fat shoap to market annually. Merino sheep are not in favour in this district. Indeed, as is well known, merinos are only suitable for poor high land. One of Mr Reid's three-quarter bred clip a? much as two merinos. The staple on the Lincoln hoggetd is fourteen inche3 in length, and occasiomilly weigli3 twenty pounds..

The planting of forest trees has engaged a large sharo of attention at Ehlcrslie. Various species of the liucahjplus \ were first tried ;• and allhough, when young, in some eases slightly touched by tho frost, they have dime well, and have been of great use in sheltering younger trees of other kinds. Over oue hundred acres are now planted in forest trees of all kinds, of which there aro at least two hundred and fifty thousand. The following are among those which are conspicuous in tko fine collection of forest trees hore, and which seam to suifc the climalo : — Cujwsssux Laic, soniana. Q. macrocarpu, Finns iiisignis, P t

.maritima,' P. Austriaca, P. strobus, P. 'lialepensis, P. Jeffreii, P. Lambertiana, P. '•muricata, and the Chili pine — Auricnria [imbricata. The following also do well :—: — ; The Norway spruee — Abies excelsa; the 'A. Douglasii, which is one of the quickest growing spruces ; and the A. nigra, as avcll as other spruces, pines, cypresses, cedars, and firs, which are here, with the English O£.k, ash, sycamore, elm, larch, birch, Australian gum, poplar, &c. Here, "as elsewhere, the Pinus insignis — which, -in Califoraia, grows to the height of one hundred feet —is prominent for the brilliancy of its grass-green colour and its luxuriance of growth. A number of them planted in 1809, when two or three feet high, measure now about forty feet. That best of all shelter tree 3, the Cupressus 'macrocarpa, is also conspicuous. In California it grows to a height of one hundred and fifty feet, and is of immense width, with a trunk nine feet in circumference. C. Lawsoniana is also a grand tree, yielding fine timber for building purposes. It is considered the most elegant of the whole family. There are three homesteads on the estate — one atElderslie, on the Waiareka, River ; another at Clifton Falls, on the Kakanui River ; and a third where Mr Poison, the manager lives, at Burnside, which is situated centrally between the other two. As the work of cultivation extends, it is intended to establish more homesteads, as centres from which the work can be carried on.

The woolshed is situated at the principal homestead, and is close to the railway station. It is a two-storey building •of Oamaru stone, sixty by eighty feet. The ground - floor accommodates ten shearers and about one thousand longwool sheep, besides storage for a large number of avool bales. It is fitted with a large patent screw wool-press, and all other modern appliances for saving labour. The upper floor is used for storing, cleaning, and mixing the grass seeds. There ! is a very complete dip and yards in conjnection with the shed. It is found very advantageous to dip the Bheep once a year — about weaning time — for the purpose of 'destroying ticks and other insects. There are also complete drafting yards ,in' cbriInection with the shed, but the 1 main .drafting yards are at" the Clifton" Falls ihom'esteadj on the Kakanui River, where ,; the greater part of the draftingia done. ■These yards are very complete in .every .detail, and quite sufficient for a flock of fifty thousand sheep. / •■: In some of the more exposed places .shelter-sheds have been They are of wood, thatched ' with^straw, and form three sides of a square— each sheltering two thousand sheep or tw© hundred ;head of cattle. From a' distance, they resemble stacks. . ■ •*..'• j The house is a two-story building, the[earlier' portion of which was built of 'wood, in 1868. ■ The larger portion i 3 of 'more recent construction, and is of Oamaru stone. It was built in 1874, and is part of a completed plan of an edifice which will ' 'ultimately take the place of the wooden structure. The style of architecture is the' rural Italian. It contains about' twentyapartments. , „

, The approach enters from the, main' ,district road, about a mile ' and , a-half ' beyond the village of Teaneraki. It is .eighteen feet wide, and has a very broad green border on each side. It is pitched |and gravelled with a rich yellow quartz gravel which is found in the immediate neighbourhood Its length from, the entrance gate 3to the house is fully half a mile. The gates are of wood and iron, painted in imitation of bronze, and hung upon large and handsome castellated piilara of cub stone — of which there are fourteen. Ou entering there ia a large clump of plantation on each aide, consistins; of a great variety of pines, cupresaus, Wellingtonias, abies, and other evergreens ; also native palms, tree ferns, &c.

The trees are very healthy, and are from five to twelve feet in height. Beyond tho right hand clump is au artificial lake of about six acres in extent. Tins was formed partly by a natural depression in the course of the Waiareka river, but chiefly by excavation, many thousand tons of earth having been taken out of it to form the drive, the embankment of tho lake, &c. Its depth ranges from two to. fifteen feet, and it is stocked with trout, which attain a large size. On the left' hand side is a pond covering about an acre. This is supplied with a stream of water by a pipe which passes from the lake underneath the drive. This pond is intended for breeding trout, of which some two hundred and fifty were put in this season. The banks and bottom are covered with a layer of six inches of gravel, to facilitate spawning. As no other fish of any kind can get into this pond, the young trout have a good chance of surviving. P.-issing on a short distance, the stream is crossed by a neat bridge., built of cement. It consists of two spans of nine feet each. Here the river has been shut off by strong water-tight gates, which reach to within a foot of the floor of the bridge. A waterfall is thus formed five feet deep and eighteen feet Avide, which tumbles over tho gates into a concrete basin, from which it flows into another large sheet of water, and ' thence into its original bed. In this lower sheet of water ia an island planted with Toi Tois and piinpa3 grass, and along tho margin of the banks are tree and other ferns, weeping Arillows, alders, &c. ' 'A large culvert enclosed by a sluice jxvsses under the duve Ia tho bends of the lake are planted groups of rhododendrons, laurustinas, wigelias, lilacs, guelder roses, and other flowering shrubs ; also, variegated and other hollies. Aucuba japonica,

■Auracaria imbricata aloe, juniper, Irish and other yews, berberries, &c. After crossing the bridge, another large clump of ! shrubberyopensoutontherightandmerges into an avenue of- pines, -'Wellingtonias, cedara, eupressus, and' other trees which reach to thehouse. The drive is enclosed from the park by a very neat fence" made of sawn blue gum • posts, , four by four laches, and iron standards alternately, and six feet apart. It has seven lines of thick galvanised cable wire. This forma a thoroughly sheep proof and handsome fence. About three hundred yards from the house ihe drive sweeps to the left, round another clump of trees and shrubs, and ascends by an easy gradient to a terrace which is elevated about eighteen feet, above the level of the park. This terrace! as about seven acres in extent, and is planted as a shrubbery. Near the upper end of it is situated the house, surrounded by a series of lawns, and where there is an extensive vin&ry 140 x 12 feet; also, a' conservatory and summer-house.' ,The vinery is covered "with fluted dim' glass, and supplied all round with water pipes. We counted thirty- five grape vines, and noticed various other fruits/ such as &gs, apricots,- .nectarines, 'pomegranates, loquates, and guava. In winter it is used for plants, and contained; at thetime of our visit, a 'large collection, some v of which are very rare. The. walls outside are used for peaches. ' At the back is an orchard three acres in extent, in full bearing. There is also a nursery for raising forest trees, of which there are many thousands preparing for removal to their permanent sites on ■various elevated parta of the estate.

At the back of the orchard the Waiareka Railway linejpasses, and behind this, a gently sloping hill is thickly planted .with a great variety -of Calif ornian and' other tree's,- many of them twelve to fifteen feet in height.' ' • ... On the lawn are some fine specimentrees, such as Pinus insignis of large growth, thujas of different varieties, .those", most symmetrical of .trees, 'aracurias, and those graceful lawn trees^ eupressus ' and', ahies, as well as others.,," In the' shrub-, beries are some fine specimens of- the/ larch, which many have supposed will not) grow in this country.- , „ \ , >.'" "'. \ From the park and grounds some , fine! : views are obtained of, the snow-capped,-ttange of the Kakahui mountains, jthe -two' ii " Dometts " and "their less'.ellsyated^neigfi,-' jbours standing out in bold relief against i jthe bright sky. The park, 'which is about , 'sixty acres in extent, is surrounded^ by Jthe Waiareka River, which a someJwhat circuitous' "courses." ""This has been : taken .advantage. ; of . in ?planting -$- the longer bends being^ filled with groups of I'piries, cypresses,' l variefcies oFthkf'eucalypti, acacias, &c"; also^ willows, ' poplafs/'syca-, imorea, elms, oaks, chestnut', jjiirch, labur- 1 'num', 1 and!" other deciduous , trees. . (The! poplar, of which there are a considerable number, must ,have a.v^ry fine ;appearance wlien in full leaf.. Depasturing in the park, we .noticed a, number of very :fine imported Lincohi j sheep. . Here, too, 'we were allowed to go within gunshot of ia flpck.. t p,f, tw,o or .three hundred ,wild ducks. Pheasants,, and partridges, we.J Iwere. informed,- ate now,becoming,numer-' ! ,o'us, the plantations affording them ample l [cover. ' starlings, are to. be seen'in thou- 1 jsarids, and a great', many of 'the' Home., Is birds are now to be seen in the shrub- ! beries. Trout, it should be ■ mentioned, were caught last year in the Waiareka, measuring nineteen inches, and weighing over four pounds.

We were greatly pleased with our, visit to this splendid, estate. What we admired especially was Mr Reid's enterprise in planting out trees. He has certainly set a noble example in this respect. He informed us that .he purposes planting a large number every year, principally on the hilltops ; and the eucalypti and acacia, or wattle sorts, will receive special attention, as they have the advantage of all others in rapid growth, and in ten years from the time of planting they can be made use of for many purposes. While growing, they afford shade and shelter to stock, besides the influence they may have upon growing crops. In a few years, the appearance of the Elderalie Estate will be entirely altered ; and as it is generally admitted that trees have an influence upon the weather, the climate will, no doubt, ,be improved. They will also be .the means of largely enhancing the value of the property.