NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1874, 21 October 1887, Page 7

NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

Verily the soil suffereth, not from a lack of moisture, but rather from a Tillage superabundance thereof, and . Operations, the farmer despaireth of getting in the root crops and grass seeds before midsummer; for the rain it raincth every day, and the ploughed land is of the consistency of a baiter pudding. Since the advent, of this month very little progress can have been made in sowing and narrowing, for no sooner had the land recovered somewhat from the flood that began on the Ist of October, and the teams had resumed operations, than another downpour set in on the 10th and continued until the state of the land was as bad as during the previous rains. Thu only thing that can be done is to set the teams breaking up grass or tussock land for turnip while waiting for the tilled land to become dry enough to recommence sowing. Here we arc past the middle of October, ana yet one can scarcely venture to talk about shearing, so low lias the temperature ruled during the month. In a reasonable season, with settled weather, it is generally advisable to shear long-woolled fat. wethers for the market soon ai't^r (,he middle of this month, but it. will bo necessary to wait a little longer this year, and in the meantime watch them woll to see that the mutton is nob turned into carrion tin o ugh the sheep putting their backs where their feet should be.

Does farming pay ? is a broad question, and cannot possibly be answered Potato offhand in a few lines, as it Growing, depends entirely upon circumstances of soil, climate, position, management, and markets; but that potato-growing does not now pay is very certain, andintendingplanterswillnot.be cheered nor encouraged by reading the account sales of a couple of growers as recently published in the Witness. In the case of Jdr E. Carroll there are circumstances to be taken into consideration that cannot be present in all cases, tfirst, there is that excessively large amount for railage, £4 2s lid— nearly half the cost of producing the 65 bags. Now, I have not the pleasure of knowing the exact position of this particular Stony creek, which is located somewhere in the Mataura district, I believe, and must surely be on the conlines of cultivated regions for the carriage of a truck load of potatoes to amount, to that sum. Then again, was it not a great mistake to send potatoes to market, in such a condition that they had to be picked over after being in the store a short time (I do not. know how long, but not many weeks, I suppose), and 10 bags of rotten ones taken out of 05 — over 15 per cent. I am forced to take it for granted that the 10 bags were rotten, or at any rate worthless, as no value is set against them. The 55 bags of sound potatoes realised £7 2s 4d, or about 2s 7cl per bag. Therefore the loss of 10 bags at 2s 7d, or £1 5s lOd, would not have happened if the whole lofc had been sent to market in proper condition, and to the above must be added the item of 8s for picking over. I presume the oags were weighed in, as no account is rendered for them, not even for the ten empty ones — the storeman's perquisite perhaps. As the account stands, the net return — leaving out cost of production— is £1 7s Od. Add value of 10 bags that should not have been rotten, £1 5s lOd ; 8s for picking same ; 10 bags (not accounted for) at, say, 3d, 2s 6d; and we have £3 3s 4d to be deducted from the cost of production (£9 2s Gd), which would leave Mr Carroll £5 19s 2d in debt by his acre of potatoes, a result that should deter farmers from doing likewise. But, as I have said, circumstances alter cases, for if that acre of potatoes were grown a few miles from town they could have been carted direct to the saleroom for the 10s Mr Carroll j allows for putting on trucks at the country station. Then we could subtract that fearful item of £4 2s lid for railage, which would reduce the debit balance from £5 19s I 2d to £1 KJs 3d, unsatisfactory enough but still nob quite so ruinous as Mr Carroll puts il. It> might be said that if the crop were grown so close to town as to do away with the item for railage, then the item for rent should be increased. But I say that the amount that Mr Carroll allows for rent is high enough for a farm pretty close to town, and is much too high for land on the outskirts of the Mataura district if Dunedin is regarded as its best market. lam afraid that Mr Carroll has made the cost of production as high as 'possible, for in my humble opinion it is not a fair estimate of the cost of an acre of potatoes. Take the item of 16s for manure. This is, I consider, a prohibitive price. If I could not get it for less than 16s a bag I should not use it, as I consider no fanner can afford to use manure a*-, that price. The item 14cwt of seed at £3 per ton is excessive, both in quantity and price. If the seed was grown on the farm half that price would be sufficient to allow, according to the value last year. Then as to quantity of seed, I think half a ton is ample for an acre, and I never plant more. Therefore, instead of 2gs for seed 1 should allow 15s, aud as two boys can drop an acre of potatoes in a day. for which I give them ; 2s 6d each, I would substitute 5s for planting in place of 15s. These two items thus reduce the cost of production by£l 17s. We had a debit balance of £1 lGs 3d before, but now we have got that, converted into a credit balance of Od— a very bad result, but not so disastrous as that published. It is stated in an article in last week's Witness that the Tamworth The Best Breed or the Yorkshire breed of of Pigs for pig is best suited for bacon the Farm, cuiers, as the Berkshires are too gross and coarse for making good bacon. I have had no experience with what is called the Tamworth breed, but I have tried the white Yorkshire, and found them very delicate and liable to be earned off by swine fever. A neighbour of mine has a fine, well-bred white Yorkshire sow, and her first litter of 12 all died before they were many months old — presumably from swine fever. A recent number of the Mark Lane Express contains a letter upon this subjectfrom acorrespondentsigning himself " Breeder." He says that, having lost his white pigs from swine f ever^ he some years ago took to Berkshires, and has no disease in his pigs since. He says that the great advantage the Berkshires have over other pigs is that it costs so little to keep them. If

any breed of animals can be kept at less expense, it stands to reason that more animals are maintained for the same money, and, consequently, that more profit is made out of the farm "produce. The young pigs (says " Breeder "') always look well and sell easily,' and some money is always being made. He contends that no better pig goes to market, or is more useful for household purpose', than the young Berkshire up to sst or Gst weight: and when sent tlo the London market they command (he says) the best price of the day. I am. of the same opinion as "Breeder," and would not wish for a better pig for my own use or for the market than a nice, well-fed young Berkshire of from 1001b to 150lb weight. Five or seven stono pigs 1 consider too young for killing, as they do not pay much for their keep until i hey have pissed that weight. I chink a great deal or" the dislike of the Berkshire is caused by keeping them too long, for there is no doubt that they do become very coarse and gross when more than two yesi'u; old. They should not be kept more than 12 months at the most, excepting, of course, the breeding sows. The letter quoted in the suticle on "Pig Breeding" in last week's Witness, from the firm of Harris and Sons, Wiltshire, vr the best pigs for bacon, states that the weight they prefer for baconers is eight scoie, or 1601b, and the age eight months. Now, it seems to me that no breed but the pure-bred large Berkshire would attain a weight of 1601b in eight months, and they would not reach that weight in the time without being very well fed and housed from the first.

Owing to the great loss of time caused during the past few weeks by the Eape excessive rains, many farmers for Sheep on low-lying lands may not Feed. succeed in getting in the last sowings of oats and barley in seasonable time. If such should be the case I would suggest that broad-leaved Essex rape be sown instead, provided the land is in good heart. It is of no use to sow rape in poor worn-out soil, for it is a gross feeder, and requires rich land or stimulating manures that will cause it to grow strong and rank right a wny fmm the seed leaf. If it. is slow or stunted in iLs growth there will be a large percentage of woody fibre in ifcs composition in place of juicy, succulent leaves. Bone dust, guano, or wood ashes are capital fertilisers for rape, and I have known excellent crops of it to be grown on light land, with a liberal dressing of one or all of these. A crop of rape sown now will come in for fattening oil' the lambs intended for freezing early in the autumn. Or if the season be propitious, and the rape grows quickly, it may be fed soon after the New Year, and another green crop sown to come on in the spring for the ewes and lambs. When sowing down land with grass where (he soil is suitable, it is advisable to add"2lb or 31b rape seed to the mixture, and the grass and rape can be fed off by the wcaners. The treading in dry weather will do the grass good, and after the rape is eaten the grass can be left to thicken up for feeding again in early winner.

Those hedges that have not been cut during the winter are now ablaze Gorse with bloom, and the sooner Trimming", this is lopped off the less trouble will be caused from spreading seed. It is generally considered that a good farmer is known by the condition of his hedges and fences, which is very true ; but there is a press of other work now, and the unproductive jobs are likely to stand over. An effort, however, should be made to knock off the blossoms ere the seed ripens and is blown about by the wind. The bad character given to gorse, as a hedge plant, by some farmers only proves their negligence in the matter of trimming in the proper season. Here is an extract taken from the Witness of 1880 :--" One of Hornsby's hedge cutters has recently been tried both in Canterbury and Otago with very good results. It is reported that two men with two horses can trim four miles of hedge both sides in a day. If this be true the machine will rapidly come into general use and be a great saving of expense." These machines have not come into general use during the seven years that have elapsed since the above was printed, nor do I see where the gain is in using thorn, as it was estimated that the) could not. do an average hedge under a cost of 5d pur chain, and if men will undertake to do the work for that sum I certainly prefer to give the work to them in preference to using a machine. AOUICOLA.