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Taranaki Herald, Volume XL, Issue 8990, 24 January 1891, Page 2

HOW TO MAKE FARMING PAY. One often hears the remark made that '• farming will not pay on a Bmall. scale." Well, I for one am not surprised at it, judging from the way the most of it is carried out in this district, but I would wash your readers to understand that I do not presume to lecture to them, but simply to give my own ideas and viewß of how it should be done, and if, through writing or otherwise, I can induce my fellow farmers to try and make three blades of grass grow where only one grew before, I think I shall have done good service to the country at large. . Everyone must live of£ the soil; this being the case it goes to show that good farming will enrich the whole country. I will take a 100 acre farm, and giv« my idea of how it should be worked. A farm of that size should be divided into five paddocks, besides leaving sufficient for a homestead. No 1 paddock should be well ploughed late in the spring, and sown with turnips or rape, and sowing from three to four cwt of bonedust with the seed. This will enrich the land and make it fit for the next crop, which should be oats sowed in the following spring. No. 2 paddock should now be broken up, and root crops put in the same as in No. 1, which would leave the farmer plenty of roots and chaff for winter feel, and should be followed up paddock after paddock until the whole ot the farm has been treated in this way. This leaves every paddock to be taken up every five years and sown down afresh, which ought to be done if we want to make the most of the land we till, and to get the best return for the labour and money spent upon it. Now, a farm of this size, and worked on the lines mentioned, should keep about forty-five milk cows. Ido not mean that the 'whole of the herd should be miking at the same time, but say about 30 in tLe summer months. It should also be so managed that there should always be some cows coming in as others drops off, and in this way the standard of the butter might be kept up both in strength and colour; and in no other way can first-class butter ba made all the year round I see hundreds of acres of land between Stony River and New Plymouth that has not had a plough in it since I came to thiu district six years ago ; and for how long bofore I do not know. At any rate any one can see at a glance the land is doing little or nothing, only growing Cape weed and other rubbish, instead of yielding good clover grass. Very few stock are to be seen upon it, and what'few there are seem to be in low condition "all the year round. The quality and quantity of milk cannot therefore be anything like what it should be. Farming xn this way will not pay, The land should not bo left more than five y<?ara without totag plough &od troatwj

as I have before stated, and the first 1 grassseed sown because, if left two long, the soil get stired of the same plants, and in their turn the "plants get tired of the soil. Take for instance a paddock of new laid down grass, and see how ranch earlier it comes away in Bpring, beside the old pasture now on a farm of this size. lam not in favour of keeping many young stock with the exception of a few good heifers to draw upon .or milk cows when the old ones dry off, or must be disposed of from old age and other causes. It never pays to keep many young stock on a small farm when the principal income is from the dairy. A good number of pigs should be kept, because " the pig is the gentleman who pays the rent ;" so next to the dairy the pig should come. The best breed of cattle for the dairy, in my opinion, is a cross between the short- ! horn and Ayrshire because we have the j milking qualities and size combined. I have no doubt but some will say that it is far easier to^alk than practise, but the writer's practises as nearly as possible what he writes, and I shall be onjy too glad to read through the medium of your valuable journal reciprocated views from experienc-d farmers, and if it tends to make us all try to make three blades of grass grow "where only one grew before, I shall have gained my object. Allen Bell. Seacb'ffs, Punehn Road.