CHATS WITH THE FARMERS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1432, 3 May 1879, Page 4

CHATS WITH THE FARMERS.

A Visit to Liivsuank, the Fabm of Mr William Stewart, Tomaiiaayk Valley, Pehinscla. Mr Stewart arrived in Otago with his parents when he was only 13 years of oge. His father ■was engineer to a coal pit in Lanarkshire, Scotland, and became manager, when meeting" with an accident from a fire-damp explosion, he went into business as a grocer. Having saved about £1000, he made up bis mind to .emigrate to New Zealand. Near the end of 1859 ho left with his wife and seven children, and soon after his arrival in Dtinedin he purchased 100 acres ot bush land in Tomahawk Valley. Here it was His intention to live quietly, allowing his two sons to clear the land, and his daughters to make butter- for market. Being unable to work himself, he leased the farm to his eldest son, giving him a purchasing clause. Seven years ago he died, and the farm has since been opened up -by his son, who is married to a daughter of Mr William Sanderson, of Lochend Farm, Peninsula. . . . The timber upon this land consisted chiefly or broadleaf, totara, and black pine. Mr Stewart showed us aproftrate black pine tree, the trunk of which measures ten feet in diameter, which is an extraordinary size for a tree of this species. Eighty acres of the farm have been cleared and sown in giass at an expense, for labour, of fully £10 per acre. The land is hilly, some of it being quite steep, and not over one-fourth of it being fit for the plough. The soil, , however, wreremarkably fertile, and it very rarely happens that the pasturage suffers frosi drought. Some of the top soil is a deep black loam, wnile upon Borne of the hill-sides it is a loamy clay. It produces splendid crops of oats, turnips, and grass. All the work upon this farm is subservient to the production of milk. Eight or ten acres of oats, four or five of turnips, and two or three of hay are grown every year— all for the feeding cf cattle, of which there are 30 head, old and young ' The only other animals upon the place "re. four horses and two foals, there being neither pigs nor poultry. Sixteen or seventeen Ayrshire cows are milked. The practice, upon first breaking up the land, is to sow oats ; then turnips are taken. The third year oats are often sown to cut green in the spring. After three years' cultivation, the cropping ground, v gown down with .rye-grass and a little white clover arid timothy, to be turned over m two or three years for oats. The rough ground is sown with cocksfoot and a little white clover and timothy. The cocksfoot makes excellent feed for the cows in winter. It holds out well, too, some of it having stood for fifteen years. Mr Stewart commenced with colonial cows, but not feeling satisfied with the yield of milk, he sold them off, two year 3 .ago,, and bought some of Mr Jackson's .good Ayrshire cows and one of hisprizo Ayrshire bulls. They feed on -BvaoiL-injummer, of which they have a good aupply, and in winter they graze on cockeioot and have turnips and oaU>n straw. They are -heused at nightfall the, -year round. In the evening,' between four and five, tbeyare milked, and again in the morning between the same hours. The cart starts at 530 with 30 gallons of milk, arriving in Dunedin at 6.45 or 7 o'clock/"" the distance- being six miles.. The milk is all delivered by nine o'clock. The usual charge for milk, of late, has been 4d per quart in summer, and 5d in whiter. A fine stream of pure water runs through the valley, and upon Mr Stewart's farm there is a fall which might be utilised for chaff cutting and threshiog, but it would cost something, as there is a considerable rush of water at times. There is a fine bluestone byre, large enough to accommodate'2B'cows, with a loft. The dwelling house is a comfortable one of brick, and there are a number of fruit trees, but no particular attention has been given to planting or ornamental work of any kind. Mr Stewart is a regular Colonial farmer, who has had a hard battle to fight, and he has got over the brunt of it very bravely. In the eatly days the best of the flat lands were first taken up, and what remained of them was avoided, being swampy and subject to overflows. The bare hills were considered poorish, and the timbered lands were known to be rich and productive. The whole of the Peninsula was covered with timber, •which was then 'valueless, and the clearing of it was a task involving no small amount of labour, especially to people who were unacnstomed to work of the kind. Still, this was the kmd of work that Mr Stewart's two boys had to engage in. Month after month they bad to work in clearing the close under- growth, and cutting down heavy trees, all of which, except a few suitable for fencing, were burnt. Then there was the work of ridding the ground of stumps and roots. Altogether the task: of preparing the bushland for cultivation was a severe one, but little by little it was accomplished, and chiefly by Mr Stewart— only 20 acres remaining in bush, which ia yearly becoming more and more valuable for fuel. There is still some of the land "in Btump," which must be cleared, and when that is done there .will be time to attend to other branches of work upon the farm besides the feeding and milking of cows and sending the milk to market. A Visit to Gbeensidb, the Farm or Me James King, ' Tomahawk Valley, Peninsula. Mr King, whose father had a grazing farm in Perthshire, Scotland, arrived in the ship Eoberfc Henderson, at Port Chalmers, in 1858, with his wife and four children. The trip to Dunedin took two days, an open boat in which they had taVen passage, having got high and dry upon a sandbank. They were all night without blankets, and the next night had lodgings in bare bunks at the Immigration Barracks, having left their bedding on board of the ship. Employment was obtained, and Mr King having purchased a (section at the Water of Leith, built a house there, and was soon comfortably settled. His next object was to secure a farm, and he purchased, on the Peninsula, 100 acrea of bushland at 10s per acre. His family having remained five years at the Water of Leith, he removed to the farm, where he had cleared a couple of acres, and built a house and byre. He commenced with two cows, and made butter, whioh cold readily at the door, for 3s per lb. He visited the diggings, at the time of the rush to Gabriel's Gully, and remained two months, but barely cleared expenses. There are now eighty acres cleared, the remaining 20 being reserved for firewood. The , land is Hilly, nearly one-half of it being too jtfeejrfyr cultivation. The eteep parfo, bow-

ever, bear excellent pasturage. The soil is a deep black loam, upon a clay tempered with sand. The clearing is expensive, but once cleared, it is easily cultivated nnd productive. Twelve ou fourteen acres are kept in oats and turnips, nnd the remainder in English grass. There are 20 milch cows, eight heifers, a bull, four horses, seven or eight pigs, and a quantity of poultry. The first crop has been usually wheat, but of late it has been oats, followed by turnips and oats agnin, with grass the next year laid down with oats, to stand for two or three years. Oats upon this land average 50 bushels to the acre. This year's crop, which is short Tartarian, is up to the average. It stands the wind better that the potatoe oat, which was a good deal shaken last year. We should mention here that we think the settlers in this valley committed a great mistake in not Inving left a belt of timber to protect it from the S.W. wind, which at times sweeps in with considerable force. Socing their error, they should havo planted the Cupressus macrocarpa or Monterey cypress, a hardy and beautiful tree, which is used in California for hedges and windbreaks, at well as for general purposes, and which is becoming a great favourite in Otago, where it is extensively propagated and thrives well. It is a remarkably quick grower, and if trimmed, will grow as solid as a stone 'wall, and remain green summer and winter. The Pinus insignia, orjMonterey pine, also grows fast, will grow anywhere, and is an evergreen, but not so good for shelter as the cypress. These two trees are of universal adaptation, and where a large ox tent of our native timber has been cut down, as at Tomahawk Valley, or where timber is scarce, they should be planted in belts, for shelter, if for nothing else.

The farmers bless the Acclimatization Society for introducing the starling, whioh although hard upon cherries, live chiefly upon larvae, which they dig out of the ground ; but they will never forgive them for haying brought in the sparrows and linnets, which devour not only the seed corn, but the corn in ear. Mr King complains greatly of the destructive habits of the linnets. They take the seed beforo there is time to cover it, and commence upon the grain long before it is ripe. Mr King commenced with Colonial cows, and introduced Ayrshire blood. Hs has now a bull partaking of the Ayrshire and shorthorn, which he thinks will improve the carcase without impairing the milking qualities. Mrs King, who is an expert in the manufacture of butter and cheese, having been used to the work at Home, makes butter until the middle of November, when she makes cheese until the middle of March. Her butter is of the finest quality, and since she commenced making it, on the Peninsula, 15 years ago, the price has ranged from 71& to 3a per lb. One year butter went down to sd, but she never sold any for less than 7£d. This year the price has ranged from lid to Is 2d. She says, one of the greatest faults committed by those who make butter ia the keeping of the milk too long. It should never stand in summer longer than 24 hours. The cheese, she says, is made with all the milk and cream, precisely after the plan adopted by Miss Kirkland, of Townend Farm, Green Island, and described by us, except that she does not scald it. Most of the cheese on hand this eeason has been sold at 72 d per lb. In Scotland she > made cheese from skim milk. Some of it which she made here, some years ago, sold in Dunedin at 9d per lb.