AGRICULTURAL.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13650, 18 July 1908, Page 2 (Supplement)

AGRICULTURAL.

"The farm labour difficulty lias led to a number of farmers -giving up growiag crops ill Auckland," declared Mr J. Massev, president of the Ancklaiul Agricultural and Pastoral Association, at a. mating; recently. " I have given up cropping: for that leason." Another .speaker, \lr? Westnev, said that up till a \eur or so a"o he had been growing wheat, but owing to the scarcity of farm labour and the outrageous wages demands made a! harvest time, he had given it up. It wa » a, matter for very great regiet that Auckland did not grow mough grain for its own use. Hundreds of tons of flour were being imported. He could remenilwr the time when Auckland grew about three times the supply of its own breadstuff's*. Probably there was something in tlit- fact that it paid to graze stock for nu-at, bnt ic wa3 largely owing to tha present labour difticnlties and laws that the wheat-grow-ing had fallen off.

THE SECRET OP .THE SOIL. When the fanner in -teop's fable told hi.vsons that he was leaving them treasure buried in his tietds, which they would find if they dag for it, he gave them nearly the sum of the knowledge which, the modern agricuTt.uralist p'osstests of the soil he ploughs. With all the edded learning of a thousand experiments in manuring, in irrigating, and in applying the science of bacteriology to the cultivation of crops, the conclusion is still the Bame-. Tilth is the essential, imperative need. Fanners have learnt a great deal about the values of different manures for different crops, and a great deal too, as to the necessities and possibilities of rotation of one crop after another, though the Roman farmer had discovered that principle 2000 years ago. Virgil's first Georgia is full of advice ae to alternating crop and crop —lupins before oats, for example—which in really the practical teaching of our modern experiments for extracting nitrogen from the air. Varro, before Virgil, even came nearer moueni pracuce, for he advised the sowing of certain crops, not with the immediate hope of harvest, but in the knowledge —«t such crops ploughed in would increase I fertility" of the soil. That is tne ical experience of high farming of y. Crops are sown to catch and a chemical elements necessary for i that are to succeed them, and then ploughed • in. Hut the great, thing e mixing and breaking up and veuu- ; the soil, ploughing it to enable frost to do its proper work, pulveriit so that the water which is to the food for the plants' roots can round every tiny panicle of soil, roots can push free .and far and «nd and drink wherever they push. 1 hat le substance of human knowledge of jldest of mans industries. The soil » all that a plant needs if it can be en up sufficiently small for the plant et, at its food. To increase to decrease manure is the main tenf of modern scientific farming. MARKET GARDENING. How- older lands make small farming pay", is' shown in an article in " l'ubuc Opinion," staling how French produce is-.increased by intensive cultivation, involving patient, persistent labour, the constant use of the spade, aud almost hourly attention. It is a commonplace that In France by intensive cult lire maiket gardeners contrive to obtain £SOO worth of.zproduce from an acre of land. ■> secret .of success lies in raising the temperature of the soil by placing beneath the surface stratum a deep layer of manure, and covering the beds with frames, •which again are embedded in manure. By this, meats a temperature of 90 degree* it, maintained in the depth of winter. This system has been in vogue for many yeais, with, the result, according to a French firm, that the gross produce works out at £6OO to £7OO an acre. When we remember that during the season ■.-- export of new potatoes from the Breton ports, reaches 1000 tons daily, and that whole; trainloads of early potatoes leave Southampton for the London market, we have some idea of the enormous market for early gTowth. Early asparagus is conveyed by fast trains from countries so far afield as and sold in London at nine shillings per bundle. Ihe import of early lettuce from Paris and Northern France reaches hundreds of crates per day, and fetch a high price. No occupation", is -more healthful than that of the markeb gardener, and probably no one de-. rivts greater pleasure from hw work when it can be made to pay. But we colonials admit •' an - alien, bted amongst intensive farming, and are content to pour into the Yellow Man's- coffer the gold he wins from our soil by his patient labour, which we are" not business-like enough to copy.

THE ROUSEABOUT. NOT SO GOOD AS HE WAS. " The present class of general farm rouseabont we're getting doesn't know a bee from a bull's foot," was the scornful allusion of a epeaker at a meeting of the Auckland Agricultural and Pastoral Association to —j class of casual labour now ottering on farms, and the meeting launched out into a general ail-round denunciation of the modern cow-spanker. Mr J. Flanagan declared that the. tarm labourer had deteriorated very much of late years. At one time a man taking a job on a farm was a proper tradesman, who could build a stack, put up a fence, cut a drain, drive a reaper, ur take a turn at cow-spanking with equal facility. Now it was difficult to get a man who knew anything at all. When a man had been licked into shape and was just becoming of use, off he went' to claim higher wages somewhere else. " At one time," declared Mr I- ui-iy, "we used to get men who could turn their hands to anything. That sort- of man is extinct in ■ Auckland now. i'ou couldn't find him if you took a microscope and a lantern. ■/ The men we get nowadays cannot even drive horses properly, j and very few" of them know how to harness a horse. You find them putting the hellyband over the back, or the breeching wrong way round. Send a man to harness up a,plough team, and as likely a.s not you'll find him yoking the t-am to the .handle instead of the head." "AIT the, dead beats and the failures from towns com* to the, farnu;, some, of them to escape the rest cure at Waiotapu or Mount Eden," said another, "and they will join the Farm Labourers' Union, and we will have to employ them, although they were better paid to stay away, whi.e good' men who don't belong to the union will have to be passed by, or else be compelled to join a boay tltey don't believe in." The president (Mr J. Master) remarked that the farmers ought to protest most strongly against the practice of letting criminals off well-meri.ed gaol on condition that thev "went, to the country."— i'NIZ. Heral'd.") THE POULTRY INDUSTRY. An interesting paper, written by Mr E. Veale, was read at the last meeting of the Farmers' Club at Cambridge. Mr Veale. has bred fowls continuously for upwards of 20 years, and is regarded as one of the best local authorities on the subfect. He was firmly convinced the poultry industry was one that could l>e worked at a profit, anrl that it was destined to assume large proporuonsin this country. He considered that New Zealand was in every way suitable fo r poultryraising. There wens thousands of acres of land, • comparatively valueless for other purposes, where the soil, climate, and surroundings are admirably suitable for #ie : purpose. The Government ie„urns

showed that the- poultry industry was progressing in New Zealand. Ihe eggs deceived by the Department forco.a siorarre during 1905-06 were 560,000, an increase of 267,000 over the previous year. Private firms dealt with as large a number of poultry and eggs as the Department, thus showing a. probable increase- in the total output of about 200 per cent. -e recent egg-laving .competition at Lambridee atforded a splendid object and th-v need g» «" father to demonstrate tha money-making capacity of fowls when properly nunaged. The 550 hens in the above competition piodueed 7000 dozen eggs at h- per dozen—£s6o. Against this there was expenditure: Interest and sinking fund on plant. 10 per cent., £4O; feed, etc., £180; labour, £75, profit on sale of eggs, £65: total, £360. Result, proiifc and labour, £l4O, for one man. He contrasted the good work done by the Cambridge J't|g-lt»y' n g Association, wiinoutGovernment aid", with the. work performed by the Government. Poultry Department. H«> had vet to learn, he said, that t.h-a Department, had made any successful efforts to build up good laying strains of fowls or ducks, or introduce strains .qual to those owned by private breedeis. In the matter of guiding, expon.ng eggs and poultrv, he stated the Govern- . merit liad done* something, hut had not much to show for the large, sums ex- \ pended. He gave the following estimates to show Low the poultry business j woull pan out<: —Initial cost of a 3CO-hen plant : 12 houses and bins £96, feed house and bins £ls; incubator and brooder £lO, cost of raising 300 pullets £57: total, £l5B 10s, say, £160; cost of labour, one-third less if done by owner. Profit and lavs one year: l-.x-penriiture, rent five acies. £5; rates, insurance, sundries, £5; interest, sinking funds on houses, raw;, etc.. 10 per- cent., £l2 10s: interest on capital on Taking fowls. £2 10s; fe.-d. grit, etc., £9J ; balance for labour £9O; total £2lO. Income, 48.C00 eggs, average 160 egga per hen. at. Is Old per dozen, £2lO. Result, £2 per week to operator, even'wn'h phenomenal prices of feed. With small extra cost any capable-man or woman could increase * flock from 500 to 6UO the second year, and bs able to employ assistance"; while 100 Indian Runner uiicks could be added to any plant with surprisin"- resulti;. '"-Mr Veale stated there was room for almost infinite, expansion, such as capon'.sing and fattening cockerels for the table, growing stock for export and show-ring, and building -up strains of birds for egg production—in all these, however, special knowledge was required. As to building up a poultry business he" personally advised procuring from a reliable breeder a breeding pen ot six hens and a. cockerel of black and wnue Orpingtons or silver Wyandotles, and one of white Leghorns—the best that can be bought. With a view to egg-product ion cockerels should be deleted quickly. As to methods of incubation he advised the use of hens, and recommendied white and buff Orpingtons, while for breeding chickens nothing equalled eoaise oatmeal, with cracked grain later on; at six weeks old, bran and pollard with the addition of linseed-meal. He considered (here was no best breed of bird—it. Mas all a nnn.-r of strain.' If onlv eggs were wanted the light breeds filled" the bill; if all-round qualities were expected, heavier breeds. In conclusion, he 'declared no marked success could be looked for in the industry by a lazy or dirty man, as cleanliness, watchfulness, regularity, and enthusiasm wer<» the necessary qualifications lor success as a poultry man.

FARMING IN AMERICA. Writing in the American . Review of Reviews Mr f'asson gives .some intt-resing facts relating to the agricultural" development- of the United States. The foundation of all American prosperity is '.he American farm, and the American farmer as he is to-day is a new product of civilisation. Formerly he worked to live, now he runs the land as a great factory. The old hand-to-mouth agriculturist is giving place to a highly educated scientific captain of nduMry and master of machnes. Mr Casson says that the beginning of the new Pactorian eia in the United States dates from the year 1897. A bad harvest in Europe coincided with a good crop in America, and the price of wheat went up to about a dollar a bushel. The resnl: was tint in mat year the other nations of (he world paid the United States 240 millions suerung for farm products, and thus unparalleled inipouring of foreign money made the United States the richest and busiest nation of the world. The work-day average of the American crop is nearly £5.000.000 sterling. Mr Cae.son, in his picturesque style, says—" Piace your linger on the pulse of your wrist, and count the heartbeats—one—-two—three—-four. With every four of those, quick throbs, day and night, a thousand dollars clatter into the gold-bin of the American fanner. When we remember that the American farmer earns enough in seventeen days to buy out Standard Oil, and enough in fifty days to wipe Carnegie and the Steel Trust off the industrial map, the story of the trusts seems like ' the short and simple annais of the poor.' One American harvest would buy the [Kingdom of Belgium,'king and all; two wonld buy Italy: j..ree would buy Aus-tria-Hungary, and five, at. a spot-cash, would take Rrraia from the Tsar." The enormous increase in the value of land is strikingly illustrated by what-Mr casson says about the State of lowa, which he regards as the most prosperous of all the agricultural States. He says:— "When the Indians sold lowa to Uncle Sam they got eight cents an acre. To

"ive the price exactly, to a cent, it was £575,000. ' When this money was paid there were statesman who protested that it was too much. Vet this amount was less than orie quarter of the value of the eggs in last year's nests. Every three months the lowa ben pays for lowa. _ This immense agricultural development has been stimulated by a great advance in aorieultural education:—" There are now f5,000 new farmers who have graduated from agricultural colleges; and sime ih* late Prof. \V. 0. At water opened the first American experiment station, in 18(5. fiftv others have sprung into "vigoi-ors ..ie. There is also at Washington an Agricultural Department, which has become the srrea- aggregation of farm-scientists in die world °° To maintain this Department Uncle yam pays grudgingly £2,000,000 a year." That education pays, Mr Casson illustrates by mentioning the fact that a single pi ofe".sor. in lowa College by h:s experiments discovered an improved seed which increased the yield by ten bushels an acre. American farmers have always been pioneers in agricultural machinery; but what their fathers did is nothing ui what they are doing to-day. Mr Casson says :—••Roughly speaking, - the ...ne needed to handle an acre of wheau haw been reduced from eixty-onei hours , to three! by the use of''machinery. /lay now requires four hours, instead of twentyone ; oats seven hours," instead of sixtysix ; ■ and potatoes thirty-eight hours, instead of 109."