HINTS TO FARMERS.

Western Star, Issue 346, 24 April 1880, Page 7 (Supplement)

HINTS TO FARMERS.

"i!; r; rr (foem the Canterbury Times.) 1 ' ; ; ir One "principal 'reason ’ why farmers .so often hndthe strength at ; 'theirdisposal below their requirements at harvest is the possibility of extending sowing operations over so many months of the year. By beginning early atid continuing to sow up to the latest possible period, a large breadth of grain can be got in with comparatively few horses and implements. But in some seasons early and’late sown crops ripen up almost together, and notwithstanding the wide margin allowed between the different periods of sowing, the harvest operations become greatly concentrated, and the chances are that the farmer finds himself altogether behind his work. The fact of the matter is that all farm work must be dphe in season, or it will not turn put satisfactorily in the Cnd. ; We have, just said tbit' early and late sown crops sometimes rush in r together*; as was the case last season; for instance, but in such seasons as this, late sown crops are late in ripening ; they are'not fit for the reaping machine till the days are getting short and the nights are damp, and if they escape rust the grain seldom goes into the stack in good ordet. The times are gone by for dilatory farming ; if ever ;they existed. When a country produces more than -it consumes fanners are brought, into immediate contact with the butei* world;. There is ho possibility of protecting them against the inroads of foreign 1 01* of encouraging and confirming them in a bad system of husbandry by means l of any- legislative enactments. -They must force their products under the, notice of outside- purchasers, and the only recommendation that Can possibly be of any value to them is the high character’of their, products, ; A ! godd article will find ! a purchaser when r a bad oiie : will not. i Last year New Zealand wheat ; stbod high • in the estimation of English buyers, but it is much, to be feared that this season’s produce, plentiful though it is, will do much I towards bringing bur reputation as wheat' I growers back'to where it was before. We jean scarcely hope to keep |he character of i our wheat permanently up to the standard • of South Australian grain, unless the latter j should deteriorate in quality; but it lies i with the farmers themselves, notwithstand-; ling the 1 diversity of the seasons, to bring' i the average quality and condition of'our i wheat up to a higher permanent average than has vat been reached. ■ It should be j remembered that a good sample will not •;realise -its full market value if - ifc iedmes i from a country of which-the produce has a jbad nathe in general ' Thus a good-farmer iiS'ifa a measure compelled to suffer; for the | sins of his dilatory. neighbors. 1 o Bdf if'a man'is indifferent’to his own interests,' it lis not likely that he will have any tender .■regard : for those of others. - In; the great centres of wheat export in America jthey manage things more ■ systematically!than'in'the Ooloniei If a sample is inferior it is branded as such, and the' : pur>-_ chaser knows what he is about ; and the; good Samples have therefore all the better Chance ! of-realising their full value. 1 .3 This;; hoWever, is much the same as what is done here with large clips ;of wool. Bach sort is branded according to quality on the outside Of the bale, it being found to : the prointerest to do so. • e r ;r 1 v; : .