The Long Bush District

Southland Times, Issue 4494, 5 December 1882, Page 4

The Long Bush District

(BY CUR AGRICULTURAL CONI RIBUTOR.) It is one of the reproaches or disadvantages ol Invercargill that the principal lints of route by which the town i:-* approached or departed from by visitors, are not only •naturally uninteresting f.om an agricultural point of view, but that so little has been done , iberenn by way of improvement*. Of the country through which the Bluff railway passes, we are afraid little can he hoped for, bnless through the creation of a special Dutch settlement there. With the eastern line, however, it i.s different ; and al hough the .defective natural drainage interposes ob-lapksto. the improvement of, th j . lower land,?, yet, th.cve now appears to be greater eign-' of life in farming matters along the eastern rpute,' than; could be noticed fory<'a'B past. , The propoition of tu.«**-nc lund is visibly 'diminishing, and the ana under crop increasing 1 . * At various points on the l.ne -notablv near Mill Pioai. crossing— an unprecedented display rf preparations for turnip sowing nay be observed. The extent of tbeluTjbor tr.de ceiainly attracts the ptinci, al attention of visiters find is tbe main stay of popn. 1 ation at pnpent. . Nevertheless among the farming 'commr-bify there is an increasing disposition to accept and act upon the fact of ihe soil of ttio district requiring liberal treatment iq.-tlie .way, pf manuring and good management before a* satisfactory return can be bb'ained, Enterprise in maki"ng a wider tise of^the / cbnvpuient snpp'ies of manure from the Weodlands Woiks and portable fe r tiii«ers,*is extending; and tbe general stimulus to wising green crops and grass, given by ibe prospects of the frrsten m°at trade te evidently Drbda-ing .in effect. The cutting up of the Land Company 'a vast properties must also create au improvement j \vhile'the ; demand for milk at the Edendale Jdairy Factory offers : sub-tantiaJ advantages ! tq tb6se wbbse : available family labor enables tbiem to profitably engage in dairving. On the whole tbe prqspeq'.s of tbo district arts . Jooliingop. '