AGRICULTURE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XII, Issue 829, 11 February 1868, Page 3

AGRICULTURE

The feed of sheep upon English grasses on our dry plain land has not hitherto been a very profitable employment, because the small number which can be kept to the acre do not afford a sufficient return to pay for labour and outlay. If this branch of farming is to be carried on here—and it appears necessary that it should be, for the lack of water on lands of this description would be a serious drawback to the keeping of cattle .—it is quite evident that more care must be taken and more judgment employed in the selection of other varieties of grasses than have been hitherto used. The plan usually adopted has been, after thoroughly racking out the land, to sow it down with an oat crop, the seed used being almost invariably rye grass, and a few pounds of white clover sown thin, with the idea that it will spread and soon make a good bottom. Tt may be chance be left unfed till the following spring when it is eaten down bare with the ground, which, being exposed to the full force of the sun, very soon bakes up as hard as stone, and every drop of moisture in the shape of shower or.dew, instead of permeating down to the roots of the grass, is evaporated with the first rays of the morning sun. The grass looks brown and the clover is stunted and will not spread, and any seed stalks that may manage to shoot up and bring their seed to maturity caii only deposit it on the hot, hard ground, where its vitality is quickly destroyed. A pasture treated in this way is never capable of bearing above three or four sheep to the acre all the year round; and indeed, the land must be tolerably good, and the season favourable for it to do so much as that.

Taking three sheep an acre as a very fair average, let us see how this is likely to pay. The' expenses would be—say rent of land 205., labour, interest of capital expended on sheep, deterioration in value of sheep, equal to 15s an acre, or altogether, 35s an acre. Now for the income —Wool of 3 sheep, 181bs., at9d., 13s 6d, lambs, which must be sold as soon as fit to wean, for there would be no room to keep them,—say 3 at 8s each, and you have an income from your sheep at 12s 6d each, or 37s 6d an acre, which leaves 2s 6d an acre for profit and risk, reckoning your increase in lambs at 100 per cent. Now it is very certain that this style of farming will not produce results calculated to induce the farmer to be long satisfied with the profits which it yields and that he will have to set his wits to work to find out some more suitable kinds of grasses for depasturing purposes on dry poor lands, or a different method of utilising snch as he already has. _ From what we had heard of it we were in hopes that Prairie grass would have suited our plains admirably, but experience has altogether overthrown these hopes. This grass, instead of spreading and becoming bushy and luxuriant, does but throw up little spindly seed stalks, and if at all heavily fed with sheep, dies out altogether. And whilst on this subject, we cannot but regret the slight value which some of our Canterbury seedsmen appear to set on their reputation ; for we have seen a good deal of this seed which was bought at very high prices turn out so disgracefully, full of filth and rubbish, that no respectable English seed merchant would have dreamt for one moment of selling such stuff. It may, of course, be argued that a customer should examine the seed for himself before making his purchase, but a farmer in buying his seed for himself almost invariably trusts to his merchant’s integrity, believing that he will not supply anything that is bad. However, it appears that it will not always do to trust implicitly to such a belief here, because—whether through wilfulness or carelessness, w’e cannot say which—there is no doubt whatever but that a very large proportion of the seed purchased is neither true to name nor good in quality. What we want here for pasturing in summer, is a grass that will send its roots down deep into the subsoil, so that it will not be affected by the often long-continued droughts ancl hot winds. The cooksfoot grass seems to answer all the requirements of the case. Let any farmer go into his paddocks after a few weeks’ dry weather, and he will see his rye grass brown as hay j but such few bunches of cocksfoot as may be there will be green and full of vigour. White clover, also, is another plantjwhich throws its roots deep. —Lyttelton Times.