NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2685, 30 August 1905, Page 8

NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

ffhe cutting up of large estates, and the

icmseq-aent enclosure of F««eM. many farms and subdivisions of them, atas caused the ■erection of hundreds of miles of ienoing of various kinds. Of late years live hedges liave been • largely neglected in favour of mechanical fences. In the oarly days the majority of fences consisted of a bamk of eqds planted with gorse, and topped with whsea.. Gorse hedges have their good points, but are costly tc Keep in order. They give Bhelter from cold winds, and relieve the bareness of the iandscape in a treeless district; but neglected hedges are both^ an eyesore and a waste of land, to say nothing of being a harbour for birds and rabbits. If a settler camnol give his own time or itfford to employ the necessary labour to keep the hedges in fair order, he had better refrain from plantiog gorse. There tire various patterns of patent fencing in the market, but the-se are too costly for the means of most of the new settlers, and there remains the ordinary type of iron fencing,' composed of «viro and iroa stanr dards, arid intermediate posts. In ereotint, new fences "settlers 4 very natur&lly take advantage of the cheapest form, having to x^ake i limited capital go as far as poctiible,"- Ibht as an inferior lence is always - , a, source of trouble and vexation, it is by ' iar the best policy to put up a good and substantial fence, at the '"outset. ' Six plain wres judiciously spaced and tightly strained will answer for sheep alone, but for hold ing cattle and horses it is necessary to add f,- barbed wire at the top. Many fences that contain, sufficient material are unsatisfactory and unreliable because of fauity ■erection, or because inferior timber has been used for the posts and stays. The po?t^ must be of sufficient .size »nd of durable timber, deeply sunk and veil rammed. Tlu posts must be braced jwith ' substantial stays that nnll not rot eway at the foot and let the whole fence slacken; many an otherwise good fence i& spoiled by putting in weak stays or * stays ■of unsound timber. Fifty years ago wire -was practically unknown, while now it is '*'£he fence of the s period." It is customary to talk of the present time as "the iron age," but I think -it may be more correctly termed the "steal age." "When >«teel wire, first came on the market it wns dearer than steel wire. There is a hard .now, and iron wire is both scarcer and Nearer than steel wire. There •is a har<l *teel wire that- comes from Germany, and is horrible, stuff to handle; and there is a soft steel wire that is nearly as pliable as iror wire. Near the coast steel wire rusts out more quickly than iron wire, -probably on account of ..the salt sea air; but in any / situation iron wire is more durable. "Wire of. No. 8 gauge is a useful size, but No: 7 ss-preferables -preferable in a boundary fence. People who need nob 'study ihe cost generally use galvanised wire. Barb wire, on its first appearance, was formed with two points, each pair sin or 6in apart; latterly four barbs with less intervals has been adopted. - The more points and the closer they are together the shorter the wire per weight, irrespective of the gauge. Wire strained 1 tight -in cold weather will expand, stretch, and slacken in^ hofc weather, and, converselyj when strained in hot weather, will Tjecome tighter in cold weather. I have seen it stated that, with a difference in temperature corresponding to the cold of winter and the "heat of summer, wire of ordinary size- will expand not less than 2m for every 100 yards. - sThe salient points of the Report of the Department of Lauds were publ'sheA m the Witness two weeks ago, but theivs are a few figures in connection with the popularity of the several land tenures which deserve special prominence. I refer to those three which are known as occupation with right of purchase, lease in perpetuity, and cash sales. During last : year 238 selectors took up 74-.033 acres under occupation with right of purchase ; under lease in perpetuity 68 selectors took up 15,833 acres; and 67 selectors bought 11.9W acres for cash. The report adnv'ts that a strong preference is shown for the right of acquiring the" freehold, either by " cash or by occupation with the right to purchase. This is proved by the fact that , during last yea* 99 occupiers availed themselves of the right to purchase by acquiring the freehold 'of 22,688 acres. The sales -lor cash outright were by auction, and applittd only to town and suburban lands suvd to a few patches pi land of special -value in country districts. It is difficult to understaad why the Government takes "such a firm stand against the freehold option in the face of the fact that so many settlers favour the tenure %vhich gives them the right to purchase their holdings after octain conditions have bee:i complied win. it iieems strange, too, that it should have ■been deemed necessary to appoint a commission and endeavour to ascertain the feeling of the people regarding the different when the offici.il report says: "Tho "jptnierence for the right of acquiring the freehold, whether by direct payment or under occupation wfth right of purchase, is again plainly indicated." The word "again" shows that the last year's lund transactions are not the first to indicate " the feeling of settlers in regard to the eeveral tenures. JTh'3 annual show of the Royal Agricultural Socieiy of- England was held early c .n_June on the society's new ground, Park Royal, nea. London. The tJiG-w of stock, implements, produce, etc., was a splendid one," and there vras a record number of entries ; but the total attendance for the four days was barely 24,000— less 'than the attendance at the Chrislchureh Bummer sbow, and" little more than that at the Dunedin winter show. For 50 years the 'society held its show at a different provincial " centre each year, and secured very good patronage, but since they acquired a permanent site near London, the nttendancy has leoreased very much at each of the three shows held there. During the laafc year or two the society Vas obtained a new charter on a more popular basis, and done everything in its powei to please the public, but without siieooss, and It is now landed in a very serious finanfcial position. An English paper, referring to the wr.etab.ed attendance., says; "Ap-

he Royal Show.

Land Tenures.

pareutly the London public is etill more interested in its social events, or in a oricket match, than in the serious and instructive business of an immense agricultural sho'.v, representing our leading industry so admirably amd fitly." I do not ' see, however, that the Londoners are only 1 to be blamed for the poor attendance ; leaving them out of the question altogether, it would appear that 21,000 is a small attendance from the country districts, seeing that there are hundreds of thousands of people on the land in England. There were 2112 entries in horses, oattle, sheep, ana pigs besides about 1300 in poultry and produce. Such a show is surely worth the notice of farming people within a hundred miles — the railway fares being only a few shillings for that distance. The last two days of the show were rather wet, but the total attendance for the four days was less than one day*6 attendance when the show was held in the provinces. AQmC()^