CHATS WITH THE FARMERS. [By our Travelling Reporter.]

Waikato Times, Volume XVII, Issue 1445, 6 October 1881, Page 2

CHATS WITH THE FARMERS. [By our Travelling Reporter.]

j ' No. Y. i Messrs Holden and Bircham's Farm. . Messrs Holdkn and BrecHAM own 400 acres of land iv the immediate vicinity of the church of Rangiaohia. It is all in grass with the exception of the few acres broken up for the little crops of this season, comprising very little more than 10 acres ot potatoes and 20 acres of oaten hay. The land generally is sloping, and the soil is of the quality that characterises all the district. There was a remarkably • fine growth of potatoes ou this land last season, the crop having yielded an average of eight tons to the acre, and in the opinion of the residents of this part of the district the land about in places will yield in average of 10 tons. The last season's crop of oats was also pretty fair, averaging 60 bushels per acre, this being the second crop taken out of the ground without manure. A small allowance of scwt. of bonedust per acre will be sown with this year's potatoes, more to give them a prompt start than to enrich the soil permanently, and as the seed was imported direct from Hohart Town and is of the finest quality, there can be very little doubt of a heavy crop. These gentlemen are both of them strong advocates of the necessity for care in the selection of any crop that is to be used as seed, as being more profitable in every way than the use of rough unpicked samples. There are generally about 125 head of cattle on this place, but as they are not bred here, but ouly bought and fed for sale again I did not notice the breed

Mr Andrew Ramsay's Farm. Adjoining Messrs Holden and Birchnm's farm, and surrounded by the Te Rahu, Paikuku, and Cambridge Roads, lies Mr Andrew Ramsay's farm of 300 acres. Should Rangiaohia ever develope into a town, the situation of this farm will be one of great value, as it is not only its position with regard to the town, but to the main district roads that will make it always worth a high price. About 30 acres have been sown in wheat and potatoes this season, the wheat selected being the general favorite, the white Tuscan, and 50 acres will be broken up for turnips. Mr Ramsay, like all the other owners ot land about here, speaks enthusiastically of the root crops he has grown from it in former years, and one paddock was shown to me that turned off four head of cattle to the acre the season before last, with turnips, Another small paddock of only 2.^ acres returned 35 tons of potatoes without counting the general use that was made of them for all the family from the time they were fit for use, and the average crop of potatoes on the farm amounted to 8 tons per acre. Just a little bonedust and superphosphate not amounting to more than 3 cwt. per acre was used to fairly start this crop, and those of turn.ps, &c, beyond the ravages of the fly ; but as a rule, the laud, if fairly used, requires very little artificial preparation for farming, and there is certainly on this farm no appearance of the grass or clover running out yet, though I went over the whole of it. Indeed, some of the paddocks presented an appearance that I have not seen surpassed by any in the Waikato. Oflj in particulai from which hay has been, cut for the past beven yeais, and from which a better crop was taken last sea- on than ev=r before, paiticularly attracted my attention by the brightness and thickness of its springing crop of rye- grass and clover, though it has had cattle feeding on it all the winter. Another fine sloping- meadow of 54 acres was poimed out to me as having been 10 years in grabs, and affording as plentiful a supply of clobe vigorous feed as ever. Both this and the last I crossed were only ploughed once without any harrowing, and fel off as soon as possible with cattle as the most effectua' means of keeping the fern from springing again, us it will do if grazed by sheep only. A third paddock that had borne crops of potatoes, oats and turnips in succession, and was now using- up the superfluous energies of a little bonedust dieting- for the turnips, in bringing forward a fine young g-iowth of clover for hay in a style that should confer every satisfaction upon its owner, consideringthe prejudicial effect upon such a crop ot the long dry at the end of last year. After passing through some old native plantations of peaches, plums, cherries, apples and quinces, that still bear largely und supply most of tne surrounding- settlers with fruit- in the ne.ison and some leraains of an old bush that stood thickly on this spot in the time of the occupation of the country by the troops in 1864, the giound being now covered with thick self sown grass that is getting thicker and finer each year till how, as the ownei says with pride, "if you were to drop a pin on any pait of it it would not touch the ground" we came to a paddock where surrounded by his little family there stood a descendant of the celebrated " Buttoifly" bull bied by Mr P'antham, a pure shorthorn hissiie being known as Lord Darlington. This young gentlemen who rejoices in the aristocratic title of Lord Stephenson is a pure white thiee-year old with all the prominent features of the Butteifly blood in his colour, the make of his head, and his fhape generally. At 10 months old thus bull won, first prize at Cambridge, and champion against his own father and several other celebrated bulls and at that age he would have fetched £300 as a calf. Some nineteen calves of this breed were worthy of all admiration and will reilize long 1 prices, and some of the cows and heifers were considerably above the usual average of excellence, a large infusion of the Butterfly points (than which nothing could be better) being visible everywhere. Three remarkably fine cows were pointed out to me as of the Alarmist blood, one the second generation, by British King, being not very far short of perfection of a cow, while her mother, a scion of Brigham Young's, and a calf out of the old cow, by Lord Stephenson, were about as pretty specimens of their ages as I have seen in the Waikato. The barbed wire fences attract a good deal of attention from anyone perambulating these and other paddocks about here—where they have been adopted with fervor — as being checkmate to straying cattle, and therefore worth even a little extra cost for the good effected. They are not delightful altogether in their effect upon the human cuticle and garments, but if contact is avoided they may safely be admired to any extent. Mr James Ramsay's Farm. A little further beyond Mr Andrew Ramsay's farm his brother, Mr James Ramsay, owns 550 acres, bounded on one side by the Mangahoi and Captain Bookett's and on. the other side by Mr Roger Kays property. About 400 acres have been broken up and laid down in grass. The soil is a rich loam on a light clay subsoil, that is easily worked, and if farmed with any care or knowledge of the art, one of the most profitable to be found. As an instance of what the soil is capable, I may mention that one small piece of 5 acres bore 14 tons of potatoes to the acre last season, without manure, and that 35 acres sown with turnips, with about 3 I cwt of boudust 1o the acre bore a very fine crop a aiy of the roots measuring 38 | inches in arojtnference, and one little piece i of the land was pointed out to me as having carried 15 tons of potatoes to the acre

the season before last. $om6 sixteen acres will be tried with potatoes again this season, as they succeeded, so well last, and with turnips, and oaten hay, from 65 to 70 acres will be under crop One of the paddocks of grass, a piece of 50 acres, struck me as one of tho finest I have seen in these parts, the grass having been sown nearly four years and been originally broken up from the tern without any manure. The rye grass and clover with which this pad-dock-is.sown could not be easily beaten for close fine growth, and I was told that at Christmas last it had 70 head of cattle on it and the feed was still nearly as high us the knees. Another 50 acre paddock that had been in rye grass and white clover about 9 yeara, certainly presented no appearance of running out, and if the land is only commonly good and the seed sown properly selected there ought never to be a failure of a grass crop in a country like this. Of course, if the land is totally unfitted for grass, or the seed sown of indifferent quality, it cannot be wondered if the crop fails, but such is not generally the case. In sowing gras9 in new land, too, never sow more than Mb rye grass 8 lb. clover and J lb. white clover, and with rye -grass aome old farmers say tho later it comes the better. There are about 80 head cf oattle running on the farm, including: a nice little Butterfly bull, and a young member of the British King family ; and altogether 260 sheep of ' (he Lincoln breed, including one ram that I saw as a specimen of several others, of a pure Lincoln breed, of Runciman's rearing, for which £?5 a-piece was given. The average weight of the fleeces last season was lO^lbs. ; aby no means to be despised shearing. I was glad to come across a nice specimen of tha Suffolk Punch breed among the farm horses here ; aa it is a favorite of mine and always leaves its mark for the benefit on any other stamp of horses with which it may be crossed. It is stronger and more compact for a farm horse than the Clydesdale, and makes a capital cross with it. This mare was in foal to my handsome young friend R<mtin Robin, and the produce will in all probability be conspicuous for its beauty There were also two fine two - year - old*, from an old mare by Lord Derby, a well - known horse about here. Amongst the outbuildings is a fine bam 50ft. x 20ft., with a 14ft. wing on each side, one for a cattle shed, and thes other side for sheep -shearing, implements . &c. I may say generally of the&e farms belonging to the Mesurs. Ramsay, that they could not be beaten as light soil farms, and that they are in as good working order as any I have seen of the Waipa lands.