SOUTHLAND AGRICULTURAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2805, 18 December 1907, Page 8

SOUTHLAND AGRICULTURAL NOTES.

flfcoA Ota Otnr Oonuroimmr.> Until this month it could not be said that the rainfall was sufficient The Tfaathar for the crops, but the aai copious showers of this Ike Para. month added to those of last month. are quit* sufficient to promote a vigorous growth, and, as a matter of faot, the growth of the orops is very satisfactory on every description of soil. The ryegrass crop is heavy, and, notwithstanding .that a considerable area has been reserved for seed, there is no shortage of pasture, owing to its remarkably rapid growth this season. The conditions of growth have been so favourable .during the last three or four weeks that ryegrass, olover, turnips, and rape have been brairding about a week, and as a lot has been laid down to grass with turnips and rape during- the period named, it i 9 safe to say that .even if the weather will be only moderately favourable during the next two months there will be an abundance of suitable food available for fattening lambs in the fall. It has been the custom on ' some farms during recent wet seasons not to roll the paddocks laid down to grass after the seed was sown, so as to afford the young plants shelter from the small lumps on the harrowed surface and minimise caking vf the surface. But the fact that the pasture was a great deal better last season where rolling was performed caused many who omitted the operation before to roll this season after as well as before sowing. Rolling has the effect of improving the power of the soil to lift water from below by capillary attraction because the pore space is diminished. This is easily seen when a film of water is flowing horizontally through loose soil, the rate of flow being increased when the particles of soil have been brought close together by the roller. Rollers which weigh 2cwt or a little more for every foot in width are the most suitable, heavier weights not being required for any soils but strong clays. In addition to the advantages due to compression there , is another prising from the smoothing of the surface, as when small clods abound lam be cannot avoid swallowing a good deal of fine sand, which brings about digestive disorders. A considerable area has been sown with turnips, and in many places Tarnlft. turpips can be seen that will soon be ready for thinning, or singling, if any hoeing that is done nowadays is worthy.- of being styled singling. A number during the last two or three years have been sowing from soe to Boz per acre on the , raised drills made by the combined ridgers, instead of the usual lib or 141b, and they have had considerable success. For the last two years I have sown only Boz, and this season am sowing a little less. Where such a small quantity is sown one man can thin an acre a day, which is three times the area usually thinned where the plants are crowded, and a fair crop would result if the hand-hoeing 1 was neglected and the drill grubber alone wa9 used. It is, of course, necessary to use more seed in some places than in others owing to the depredations of birds, but farmers everywhere ate sparing the seed as much as possible

in order to minimise the labour of thinning, ' or rather to avert the risk of not getting* this work done at all. Although a considerable area has been sown the work will take a fortnight or so to complete, and it may take longer if the present showery weather continues." The variety principally sown with grass is the Devonshire greystone. This is a nutritious soft turnip, firmly rooted, and standing well out of the ground. Some years ago the Romey Marsh variety was tried by some, but unlike the greystone, it is but feebly rooted, and as sheep have difficulty in eating a rolling turnip this variety is not sown Tjy many. Swedes are usually sown here not later than the first week of December, and hard, yellow-fleshed turnips, suoh as the green-top yellow Aberdeen, are sown early also on account of the slower growth of hard-fleshed varieties. The Devonshire greystone is the turnip usually sown with pasture. , The Southland shows are over. Thousands of people visited them, Agricaitiral come as exhibitors, others to Sbowi. gain information, but many merely for pleasure. But | whatever prompted the visits shows are admitted by everyone to be of much benefit to the community, and no one is heard saying a word against them. I have heard a few saying, however, that if one desires to critically examine and compare exhibits it is important to be present on the first day ac well as on the second. This ie no doubt &n opinion which is generally held, and it emphasises- the importance of holding a. two days' show in important centres, where the exhibits are numerous in many clasees. Many regret the absence of much machinery that used to be shown, but it is very satisfactory to note that -©lakers of double drill turnip ridgers, turnip thinnere,, and milking machines are exhibiting. These machines, particularly the first-named, have saved an enormous amount of labour during the past few seasons, and improvements are still being added. One, at least, of the Curnip-thining machines is giving much satisfaction on flat land, and the milking machines deserve favourable jaention also. The title of this paragraph is a/ phrase which is occasionally used igrleiltirailsts by a few speakers and """ ana writers, and it may interest Fanners. some readers if an attempt ie made to give definitions of the terms. According to the Century Dictionary an agriculturalist means one occupied in cultivating the ground, and farmer, one who cultivates a farm either as owner or lessee; also, "one who undertakes the collection of taxes, customs, excise, or other duties for a certain rate per cent., or pays a fixed sum for the privilege of collecting and retaining them: as, a farmer of the revenue." It thus appears that even in its ordinary signification the word farmer has a wider Cleaning than that of agriculturalist, and I think it is also more appropriate. Indeed, I think there are few if any agriculturalists in this country. Reference to Crabb's English Synonyms tends to confirm this view, but some people may think Crabb out of date. According to this writer of the earlier part of the nineteenth century, "the farmer is always a practitioner; the agriculturist may be a mcxc theorist: the fanrner follows husbandry solely as a means of living; the agriculturist • follows it as a science : the former tills the land upon given admitted principles; the latter frames new principles, or alters those that are established. Betwixt the farmer and the agriculturist there is the same difference as there is between practice and theory; the former may be assisted by the latter, so long 1 as they can go hand in hand; but in the case of a collision the farmer will be of more service to himself and his oountry than the agriculturist : farming brings immediate profit from personal service; agriculture may only promise future, and consequently contingent, advantages." In Adam Smith's " Wealth of Nations," and Chambers's Encyclopedia we find somewhat similar conceptions of a farmer. The latter authority says that " the term farmer is often applied to a person who owns as , well as cultivates land. In America the • farmer owns the land he cultivates." In. I this country some landowners, both big and I

small, have called themselves settlers, but that was before the colony became £ Dominion. I think it would be hardli appropriate now for a farmer to define m* occupation as tha< of a settler.