CHATS WITH THE FARMERS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1395, 24 August 1878, Page 3

CHATS WITH THE FARMERS.

A yisiT to Springfield, the Farm ok Mr. John Mathieson, Peninsula. •> Mr Mathieson arrived in Dunedin from Midlothianshire, Scotland, twenty years ago. He had been brought -up to mixed farming, and fortunately Mrs. Mathieson knew the art of making butter and cheese. Fresh butter was Belling at Is 6d per lb., and the wholesale price of milk was 6d per gallon — prices which it appeared to Mr Mathieson would yield tho farmer a very satisfactory return. To purchase land/put np buildings, and stock it would require more capital than he could just then command. He therefore leased for seven years, 160 a«res of land from Mr Arthur Burns, at Grant's Braes, near Vauxhall, upon which there was a stone house and some other improvements. He thon "started for Green Island, where ho purchased twenty head of Colonial cows, the best, that could bo obtained, some of which, however, were half wild. A number of them were very poor milkers, but Mrs Mathieson turned out most excellent butter, which, with milk, was sent acrass the Bay to Dunedin twice a week. Two and a' half years after Mr Mathieson got settled upon his farm, the rush for gold set in, Which raised thb 1 price of butter to 2s 9d per lb. ! By this 'time he had got a pretty good herd together (including a fine Ayrshire bull), milking, from' 2o to 36 cows. For people who in the Old Country were compelled to work hard for a 'small return, there was now every motive for -;exertion. Mr Mathieson's efforts were well seconded by those of his wife, who for a time made cheese, as well as butter, which sold at Is Bd per pound. As may be imagimed, the grass ' converted into butter, brought in a large amount' of money, but the constant outlay for pasture was, £1 per annum, per acre. Considering the profits, this wasnotaheavyrent, but'MrMaithieson began to think that by the time his lease expired he would be in a position to fun a fai-m of his own., • He then began to^-look round for a freehold, and four years .after his start at Grant's Braes he purchased 79 " acres of bush land in a fino valley, nearly half \ way ..between Anderson's Bay and Portobello. During the three years that he remained at Grant's Braes he had from

12 to 15 acres bleared and • fenced and a houso 'and byre erected on his own land. Close by he secured 141 acres more, making a fine farm of

220 acres. The clearing of the land was done chiefly by contract, the price being £L 0 per v acre' for felling and .logging, and £l extra per

acre .for fencing. Most of the stumps were "allowed" to rot, but some were taken out after a tcrop of oats, at "an 'expense of £24, per. acre. ''When stumpgd/iu'the second year, the cost was 1 £21 per acra,.and in the .third, £15. When the '' stumps were five or. .six years old, .the cost was '•> £7. Most of the land is pretty steep, but the .* soil is a rich; deep," friable chocolate loam, the '. greater parfbeing o"n a Milestone bottom. All of it has been cleared except about 10 acres left ;> in clumps for. shelter, and fuel. When the lease was up, he started. at Springfield with a fino '"'herd of half *bred cows, and carried on for four

years, "when the notion seized him that sheep farming would pay better than dairying. He sold, off his fine milking cows and purchased 450 . ' half-bred sheep and 50 pure Leicesters. The first '' year they did pretty well, butthe second yearthey * did not thrive, and a number of the lambs 1 died. ,;,ThiQkingthatachaflgewoutdbeadvantageous,he ' 'sold 1 them all off and got a fresh flock of the same f ibreed— Merino-'Leiceaters. , The third year tho i, lambing was a partial failure, the wool crop was poor, and the sheep were in anything but a ' thriving' condition. Mr Mathieson now 1 con " 'dueled that the quicker he got out of sheep the i better, especially as his neighbours found that i the herbage .in the .district did not suit them.

He therefore, attar three years' experience in • feeding sheep, abandoned them and commenced making up another dairy herd. The land, it " appears, was sown for permanent pasture, with the following mixture of grass seeds when cleared: — Perennial and Italian rye grass, Timothy, cow grass, white clover, and a little cocksfoot. Of course the rye grasses are better ' Btiited for the rotation than for permanent pasture. As for the cocksfoot it was a bad plan to i. hav.e put it in, for it' is well known that it overi grows the finer grasses, forming coarse tufts. At Springfield it strengthened its hold upon the soil year -after year until it took possession of the ground, and now forms a very rank growth. Whether it was that it was not congenial to sheep, or that there was some other peculiarity ' abont the pasture which rendered it unfit for 1 sheep, is not known, Mr Mathieson acknow- ! ledges that he made a groat mistake in not letting well alone. • • • , ■ Abpnt tventy half-bred Ayrshirea We now .- milked upon the farm. Five acres are culti- , 'vated in oats, turnips, potatoes, and carrotß for ■ the stock. In winter the cow 3 are fed ,on turnips and > hay twice a day. They are housed at night and turned out in fine weather. Mr Mathieson thinks they are hardier and thrive better if not housed too much, and have their food uncooked. In summer they remain out day and night. .The , best . cow, he considers, is a cross be- . tween the colonial and the Ayrshire. For the first six or eight months after calving, each cow • averages about 71bs of butter per week j for the next three months about half that quantity; and they are then allowed to run for two or . three months. The whole of the milk is converted into butter, which is made up into ilb , pats and sent fresh to two of the leading grocers in. Dunedin, once a- week— no salt being used. It ,' is undoubtedly of most excellent quality, and it always brings the best price. This butter was exhibited only twice in Dunedin, and each time

took a first-prize. r The dairy is of bluesbone, „, roomy, , cool, and ' unscrupulously clean. An ,eveu temperature is maintained in winter by means of a stove. A large box churn with rertical dashers, isused/^capable of making at once r . 1301bs of butter,^ >It is worked by horse-power, , "which is a great improvement upon the ordinary . method. As for Mrs ' Mathieson' s method of making butter, we regret that we obtained no particulars. Mr Mathieson rears four or six calves every year, and having a couple of good brood mares, he has often a fine foal to dispose of. i The finest stone fences wo have seen anywhere are upon this farm. There are over 40 chains, all of bluostone, high and well-built, some of the coping being secured with mortar. ,' There are also some splendid thorn fences, which are well.kept-H;he remainder of the fencing being of posts, rails, and wire. The homestead is most substantially built of bluestone, with a slate roof ; and the byre and other buildings are also of stone. There is a good orchard 12 or 13 years old, which has yielded fine crops of fruit, especially apples, but , the trees are now badly affected with the blight. Lost summer the aphis hung about the boughs like hoar frost, extracting the sap and causing diseased excresohces. Mr Mathieson' is puzzled, about a remedy, and has requested us to publish a good one, for the benefit of others as well as himself. We have not only read a great deal upon the subject but have consulted most of our nurserymen. There are many blight-killing mixtures, but as the roots as well as the branches are subject to the attacks of this insect,, there, is no use in cleaning the trees ftbore the ground, without attending to the

roots. None of them must be loft alivo, eithor upon the trees, or in the ground, for a single female will produce from 15 to 20 young ones in a day. The young are not hatched from eggs, but brought forth alive. From seven to fourteen generations are produced in a season, all of which excepting tho last brood, aro wingless females, and produced without the appearance of a single male. This extraordinary kind of propagation, says Harris, ends in the autumn with the birth of a brood of males and females, which in some species acquire wings, pair, and, after the female has deposited her eggs, die. Those eggs are deposited in a tender part, of the tree in autumn, and are hatched out the following spring. It is supposed that tho aphides which become winged go into the ground to undergo the change. Wo sco it stated that an effectual remedy was discovered some years ago by Mr Batey, a Victorian farmer, which has been fully tested by many others. His apple trees were badly affected, and as he was pickling wheat with bluestone, he thought if he washed the trees with the picklo and put it about the roots, it would poison tho insect, and he did so. lie put 1 lb. of bluestone to an ale cask of water, and with it he washod tho trees. He thon cleared away tho soil round about the trees, so as not to injure tho roots. He then threw in two or three buckets of the bluestone water. Mr Charles Sonntag, of the Brbokville Nursery, however, has furnished us with the most effectual remedy of all. Having applied to him, he has supplied us with the following 1 particulars: — "An apple tree named the Winter Majetin, of thorough blightproof quality, is destined to renew all our apple plantations sooner or later. The Majetin has to become tho stock of all our future apple-trees, on which to graft our favourite varieties, and. only then shall we be perfectly safe from the attacks of the blight in every portion of the root and stem, as high as the graft ; and if accidently in our renewed orchards a shoot might get infected, which will be very unlikely to happen, it will be easy to clean or remove such a shoot. Tho tests of the blight-resisting quality of the Maje- ' tin have been manifold. A line of such between two lines of common apple trees covered with blight has .never been infected. Majetins alongside blighted apples form a barrier as effectual as a stone wall would be against the inroads of a bull ; and if a Majetin is grafted on a blighted crab-apple, the blight will not rise higher than the graft. These tests have proved all that has been said in favour of the Majetin and recommend it to the public as a thoroughly reliable remedy against blight." Once in every three or four years paroquets have been very destructive, but this year they have been more numerous than eyer, and have been backed up by myriads of green linnets. War was made upon the paroquets with powder and shot, but the linnets are more difficult to deal with.