NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2045, 4 May 1893, Page 6

NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

In the matter of wheat-growing Canterbury is regarded as the granary of New Zealand, but the result of the past two years must have given rise to some sore misgivings in the minds of Canterbury farmers as to the wisdom of devoting so large a share of their energies to that department of agricultural industry. I see by the official estimates that the average yield of wheat per acre in the Canterbury district for the last harvest is returned at 21-13 bushels per acre. Multiply 21 by 2s 3d in the field, and there is not much left outside of working expenses to stand against interest on working capital and the capital value of the land, to say nothing about the amount of available in return for the fertility extracted from the soil by those 21 bushels odd pouuds per acre. The unfortunate part of the business is that a bad wheat year falls most heavily on the small farmer, and consequently those least able to bear the loss. One bad year is a severe enough strain, but when two bad years come in succession it practically means bankruptcy to a number of hard-working men, for if they do not immediately flud their way into the bankruptcy court, they must perforce bend their weary steps to the money-lender's office and negotiate bills of sale on stock and plant at rates of interest which render their condition painfully akin to that of slavery. Can any one well picture to themselves a potition that calls for more genuine pluck and sturdy resolution of mind than that of the small farmer who begins ploughing for his next wheat crop with a " plaster" on his team, his implements, his milk cows, perhaps also his few sticks of furniture, and,, in short, ever} thing that is nominally his, barring his wife and children, at rates of interest at lease double of those current for loans on the best-landed security ? And yet I venture to say that this is the position of numbers of industrious settlers, not only in Canterbury, but in every grain-growing district in the colony. . Governments sometimes take credit to themselves for the results of a good harvest, but as a rule they<are not so anxious to identify themselves with the influences of the seasons and the markets in bad years, and it must be strongly borne in on the mind of many a hard-working settler that of all the troubles incident to the life of the working farmer how comparatively few are there that kiug.«, or beneficent people's Governments, can set right.

Farmers' Work and Wages.

The closing sentence of the foregoing note has led me by some sort of sequence of ideas to the consideration of the work and wages of working farmers. I see that one of the planks of the Liberal-Labour platform is that 44 hours shall constitute a week's work. It is not so stated in the bond, but I infer that it is meant that although the week's work is to be cut down by four hours, wages are to undergo no corresponding reduction. The idea strikes me as being rather a brilliant one, and I do not see why so admirable a principle should not be capable of wider application. Why should the man who works for wages keep so good a thing for his own exclusive use and benefit ? "Way, for instance, should it not be enacted that in future wheat is to be sold at 501b to the* bushel instead of 601b, and oats at 351b instead of 401b, but that the price per bushel is to be in no way affected by the alteration of weights. This arrangement would obviously confer a substantial benefit on the producer, and if farmers are ; alive to their own interests they will take effective steps to bring the matter forward at the next general election. Having hit upon so simple a plan for improving the position of the wage-earning classes, the only matter for surprise is that the labour unions should propose to be so moderate in the application of it. If 44 hours are to yield the sama return to the wage-earners as 48 hours did before, why not put the week's work at 24 hours p or why not go a step further and do away with the working hours altogether, but enact that no alteration shall be made in the rate of wages. There might in the long run be found some difficulty in finding the money to pay the wages, but that is surely a question for the capitalist to consider.

The Stern Iteality of a Farmer's Work.

The working farmer has to deal with a paymaster who is not quite so amenable to the decrees of a Liberal Government as the ordinary capitalist. If the farmer puts in only five days and a-half's work, the farm credits him with that amount of wage-earning time and no more. It will on no consideration allow five days and a-half to stand for six days' work ; and as for 48 hours being a week's work, the man who drives his own team puts in nearer 12 hours a day than eight hours. His plough does not run for that length of time, but the team has to be tended before and after work, besides the multiplicity of small jobs which demand the attention of the man of limited acres and small capital. The working farmer is, in fact, never off duty — that is, if he is a man who means to get on, for when bis day's work is done he has not done with his cares and anxieties. There is deal of stern reality about a farmer's work. Frequently there is more reality aboub the work than about the reward. We have it on the authority of the reputedly wisest of men that ia all labour there is profit, but tht> profit does not invariably fall to the share of the man who does most of the work. Sometimes the whole of the profit goes into the pockets of the money-lender, and occasionally it represents a minus quantity — that is to say, it amounts to less than nothing ; or, -in other words, leaves the farmer in debt. lam afraid that ia writing these notes I have a ! lowed myself to fall somewhat into a strain of pessimism, but when a man takes as his text 21 bushels per acre at 2s 3d a bushel, he cannot well be expected to preach a cheerful discourse. Asa farmer, and one who has had his share of hard work and hard times, I can sympathise with those who are still struggling, and when we hear so much about the rights and wrongs of the wage-earning class, I see ho reason why the hardships and trials undergone by about tbe most hard working and most precariously paid class in tbe community should not occasionally be heard about.

The Babbit Nuisance.

The fecundity of bunny appears to be equal to all and every means that have hitherto been brought to bear to reduce the numbers or bring within even reasonable control this übiquitous rodent. In spite of the wholesale and widespread slaughter that goes on year in and year out, the rabbits are not abated in numbers one whit, and at the present time they are more abundant throughout the rafcbit-infected districts than ever they were before. Despite the efforts of inspectors, and the help of tinning factories the forward march of bunny has not yet received a wholesale check. We speak conventionally of the rabbit nuisance, and pages of Hansard have been filled with the discussion of thesubjectin Parliament. Repressive legislation

WheatGrowing in Canterbury.

has had little other effect than to harass the country settlers while the rabbit goes on his way rejoicing. Of course there are settlers in the country too indolent to protect themselves or to attend to their own best interests, and theye must be kept up to the mark for the sake of their neighbours. This, I take it, is the reason of the Rabbit Act. Were all settlers in the country sufficiently alive to the necessity of waging continuous and uncompromising war upon the rabbit there would be no need for repressive legislation. But is the rabbit wholly and solely a nuisance? I think a negative reply might easily be given to the query. When we see the number of men throughout the country who are making an honest living by rabbit trapping we must perfotce admit that the rabbit is not out and out a nuisance. Were it not for this one outlet for the industry of our surplus labour population the cry of the unemployed would be most certainly accentuated. As matters stand there are few of sufficiently robust physique to stand tent life who need go unemployed while rabbits are in such plenty. But most of those who cry out loudest about being unemployed prefer city life to the country.

A Bonusfor Babbit Skins.

Tha advocates of a Government bonus on the export of rabbit skins as the best practical solution of the rabbit question have, I must admit, a considerable amount of reason in their contention. There are of course serious objections to the bonus system, as in too many cases it is subject to abuse ; but there can be no question that a very small bonus would go a long way towards helping ahead the destruction of the rabbit. In any case I don't think out and out extermination should be attempted ; all that is required is to keep the rodents within reasonable bounds. While the skins fetch a good price in the London market there is no other inducement needed to insure the uuiversal trapping of the rabbits ; but when prices fall the work of destruction eases off immediately. Could something approaching top price be guaranteed all the year round, the work would no doubt go on continuously, and on this "account the proposal is certainly worthy of consideration While guaranteeing a good price the Government would require to allow a margin, bo that when 6kins reached a certain price in the London market no bonus would be given. Under a bonus system there is of course the probability that the rabbits would be farmed, and this is really the main objection to a trial being made. In any case the present method of dealing with the rabbits appears to me to be prodigally wasteful. Wholesale poisoning means wholesale destruction with no adequate relurn, and were poisoning altogether abandoned the carcases could be all utilised. They would be invaluable for a chemical manure works alone, and if every rabbiter collected all he killed the amount of valuable manure that could be obtained from this source would be considerable. When the severe drain made upon the agricultural resources of the ooloriy by the large export of frozen meat is taken into account, it will be seen that a sensible off-set might be made by converting the rabbit carcases into manure for the pasture lauds.

Good Salt Butter,

With the taste that has sprung up for pure fresh butter, by far too little attention is paid to the production of a really first-class salt butter that will keep and stand handling. Although there is a steadily increasing demand for pure fresh butter, yet the majority of those who use this product of the dairy prefer at least the admixture of a grain of salt. Tastes differ in this respect as in all others, and from the lover of pure fresh butter to a good heavily salted article the grades of taste are various. On the factory system both fresh and salt butter are made, but of the latter very little indeed. In most cases a small sprinkling of salt is added, merely to help the keeping quality of the butter. And when it is borne in mind that most of the factory butter is exported, there is the greater demand for good salt butter locally. It is to the farm that we must look, then, for this desideratum. Too often salted butter from the farm shows a streaky grain that at once arouses the suspicions of the consumer as to its cleanliness, while the only fault may be improper admixture of the salt. The proper working in of salt cannot be done by hand without the help of some sort of butter worker, and a simple butter worker for the farm dairy is what is wanted. If the salt is worked in according to some good system by means of a butter worker the butter should not show any of the objectionable streaky appearance. A good deal of the butter is spoilt in churning by using old-fashioned churns that mash the butter up into a pasty mass before the operation can be stopped, and the quality of the salt used is another important consideration. A granular salt is best, and it must not be too fine or too coarse in the grain. When ordinary coarse salt is used it is a common thing to come across lumps of jindissolved salt in the butter, and of course this ought not to be in a properlymanufactured article.

Churns and Churning.

Of churns for butter-making there is endless variety, and methods of making are almojt as varied. Our ancestors made butter by stirring cream with the hand in a jar, and I have seen a relic of this vtry ancient system of churniDg in New Zealand. Butter made in this unsavory manner would not be in any great demand, however. Another kind of primitive churn was a long upright barrel, fitted with a dasher worked up and down by hand. Although somewhat primitive, this kind of churn was very effeotive, and is still in use on some farms. A further advance was-the box churn, fitted with an internal apparatus consisting of a series of beaters turned by means of a handle. This kind of churn is also very tffective, bub the chief objection to it is that the beaters act too much like a butter worker upon the butter as it comes from the cream. The ordinary barrel churn, which revolves and produces the butter by agitation of the cream, is a distinct advance, as by stopping the operation of churning at the proper stage the butter remains in a finely granulated state, and can the better be freed from buttermilk. The cubical churn, a mere square box with no internal fittings whatever, is a better arrangement than the barrel churn, or the swing churn either. But perhaps the most effective churn that has as yet been invented is the pneumatic churn. In this churn the agitation of the cream is brought about by means of air forced through it, either by a steam exhaust jet or water high pressure. This kind of churn is bpst adapted to the factory, where it has been found to give the be3t results. The cubical churn is about the best for the small farm dairy. AftTfinnT.A.

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