Small Farms

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XVI, Issue 5630, 27 November 1889, Page 3

Small Farms

Writixo on the subject of "Small Farms, the Melbourne Leader has the following

— " The time seems to be coming in this country, if it is not already here, when the owners of small farms will prove to be our most successful farmers. Unfortunately, the capabilities of a few acres are but imperfectly understood. The idea prevails that farming on a small area of land is wasted energy and time ; but nevertheless there is a growing inclination among a few of our farmers to increased labor and attention to small areas. This is the policy which has made fanning possible, and even highly remunerative, in the old world on lands that are valuable, audit is the policy which must sooner or later obtain in this country. If the same labor and attention now given to the cultivation of colonial farms were devoted to one-half the area, or even less, we believe the results would be much more satisfactory. Another great mistake which is made by the majority of our farmers is that of confining their operations to one or two rops. Plenty of variety is the system to pursue, having always something to sell at all periods of the year. How great this variety should be will depend somewhat on the soil and somewhat on the farmer. Some men can attend to a great variety of crops and never have one come in the way of the other, while another will make a regular jumble of everything. It requires a considerable amount of executive ability to be a good farmer, hut the slipshod methods of going to work that perhaps may have been in former years, must now be substituted by a more intense system of farming, greater variety in production, and the habit of doing better work and more of it, than has ever been done before."