CHATS WITH THE FARMERS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1489, 29 May 1880, Page 6

CHATS WITH THE FARMERS.

A Canterbury Farmer.

Having lately paid a hasty visit to Christchurch, I heard of a farmer who had devoted a considerable portion of his small farm to the growth of apples. I made a call upon him, and obtained some interesting particulars, which, though not so complete as they would have been had more time been at my disposal, will be interesting to many of your readers. The question of fruit-growing has often been brought up of late as one of & class of native industries that has been very slow in its development ; and the result of my enquiries in this particular case has been to convince me that apple-growinpr, for one thing, can bemade to pay. The name of the farmer whose exertions I am about to describe is Stanley, and his farm is Bituated about six miles from Christchurch, between the Ffndalltown and Papanui roads. As I approached it I had to pass up a lane lined on each Bide with high poplars, whose boughs met over my head. The roadway was thickly strewn with autumn leaves, like a carpet under my feet, and I was forcibly reminded of many an English lane with which in old times I was familiar. The brown tints of autumn in tbe evening glow gave a peculiarly English aspect to the level landscape. Mr Stanley's farm is embowered ia trees, many of them of great height, and when in full leaf they must afford that important nqui-ife for the orchard — shelter. The house and farm buildings are substantial, but have no special points about them that need description, there being only about 100 acres in all in tbe whole property. Mr Stanley is a hale and somewhat burly specimen of an Englishman, with a family of ten, several of whom are grown-up sons who assist on the farm. He hails from Worcestershire, and he came out to Lyttelton ia one of the earliest vessels, arriving about thirty years ago with about L 3 in his pocket. He stayed four years or so in Lyttelton, jobbing about, and then managed to buy thirty- five acres of land —the site of his present orchard— from Mr Ormcnd, to which he has since added as he was able. The land is now probably worth L4O an acre, from its proximity to Christchurch ; so that Mr Stanley's heirs, if not himself, will benefit in no small degree by "unearned increment." But the increment which ho has earned is that of which it ia now my business to speak. A very small accidental circumstance probably gave a bent to Mr Stanley's pursuits. He happened to bring out a few apple pips from his native county, which he sowed in his garden, and thus raised a few stocks ; these he grafted, and when he went on to the plains he had a number of young trees to plant out. After a few years he had six acres in orchard, which he added to from time to time, till now be has thirty acres, twenty- five of which are in beariag. He evidently lost a greatdeal of time in gainingexperience. He had to raise sorts and prove them, and after some years' experience discovered that he had far too many of the soft non -keeping apples and far too few of the keeping sorts. He bad when he began no practical knowledge of the business in which he now found himself engaged, and so had to buy his experience. Probably with such practical experience he would have done in ien years what has actually taken him twenty. He imported a cider press with the idea of making cider of bis surplus fruit, but tbe idea he eventually abandoned. At one time, too, he took to selling young trees, and got a very low price for them. He now saw that it would have Leen much better to plant out the beßt sorts and only get rid of the unprofitable kinds, which he eventually did by cutting down the trees and grafting the sorts he wanted on the stumps, by which means he soon got Btrong bearing trees of the right sort. He Bays that he disagrees with the remarks of a recent writer in the Australasian in regard to hybridicinp, as he has always found his graft 3 turn out true to their stock. He has had as many as 16 different sorts grafted on one stock," all comiug true to their kinds. The blight at last became a great trouble to him, and for years he has not been free from it. He has both the American blight and the "scale" blight, and he considers the last worse than the first. But by keeping the trees up to a good average, and not forcing them too much by manure, he finds he still gets a large yield of fruit. He did not know what this year's yield would be, but for some years it has ranged between fifty and eighty tons of sound apples. He has other fruit, but apples he finds the most profitable on the whole. The birds make great havoc with cherries, and stone fruit generally. As to price, it ranges from Id a pound for the soft kinds up to 2d and 2£d for stone pippins, russets, nonpareils, &c, which keep all through winter. As I said -before, ha has been gradually diminishing his production of the nonkeeping sorts, and increasing that of the keeping sorts, whioh of course are more profitable. Taking an average yield of sixty tons, and an average of a penny three farthing? a pound, his gross produce for the year must be over L 950 in value— a remarkable return from twenty-five acres of land, for, as I said, five acres are not yet in bearing. Mr Stanley remarked that though he himself wa* satisfied with tbe results he had obtained, he should be slow in advising anyone else to try the came experiment, whioh involved much labor, and ingenuity, and expense. But perhaps Mr Stanley rather undervalues tbe ripe experience «f grained horticulturists, one benefit of which would purely be that similar results could be obtained ia less time. Mr Stanley found that he at first planted trees far too close, and several times had to turn them. He now considers about 120 trees to the acre th£ maximum— that if, about 20 feet apart every way. He has certainly reaped a good measure of success, and I shall be glad if this short notice leads to further enquiry and imitation. Should any of your correspondents require specific answers to questions bearing on the Bubjept, I have no doubt I can obtain them from Mr Stanley, to whose courtesy I am indebted for the above iiformation.