THE WANGALOA DISTRICT. TO THE EDITOR

Otago Witness, Issue 1555, 27 August 1881, Page 19

THE WANGALOA DISTRICT. TO THE EDITOR

Sm,— ln the last number of the Otago Wltneis I noticed an article under the heading of " Country 'Rambles," signed "Observer," describing Wangaloa and the method of farming carried on in that district. Now I beg leave to say that in the description of it he. is greatly mistaken. •He must be ' a stranger in the district or he would never have written as he did. In the first place, the gentleman who signs himself. "Observer," says' " Some of the farms have dwellings that would suffice to maet .a larger 'income." This, I say, is simply absurd. There is no house in the district that is unproportionally large (for that, I think, is what he means) for the farm on which it stands ; indeed, I think a great many are exactly the reverse ; and I sincerely hope soon to see a class' of more elegant and substantial buildings take their place. In the, second 'place, he says that tlie farming adopted here differs but slightly from the old clodding way, of successive cropping.' This I deny. The VVangaloa farmers in general do not crop their ground successively. In nine cases out of ten the farmers take only one crop of wheat every six years. The system theyjjenerallyfollow is something like this:— They break up their 'new ground anil let it lie fallow ;■ then plough again, 1 sow j wheat, then turnips ; eat them off with sheep ; then' take a crop of oats, and sow down in grass. Lex is worked in the same manner, with- the exception of letting it lie fallow. It is only rarely that there are two ■ crops of whe<tt taken off ttife same piece of land successively. The average of the district— which was noarly 50 bushels per acre last' year —is a proof that the farmers have not beca ruining their land (as " Observer" says), when you' take into consideration that the land which yielded that' average has been, cultivated for over 15 years a,t least; Stock-raising also has had a prominent place for a number of years, and | sheep from all parts of the district have realised the i highest market value at all times. "Observer" also speaks of a want of taste shown in designing belts of j trees around the homesteads. Against this I have 1 nothing to say ; but I hope the time will soon come, i when the farmer will pay more attention to treeplanting, as they are getting all their farms into cultiI vatlon.— l am, &c.,

A Reodint.