Small Holdings.

There seems to be a general ignorance on the part of new comers of the fact, that cattle not only live, but thrive exceedingly well, upon such feed as they find growing in a natural state on the unimproved lands of the Province. We mention this particularly, laughable as the idea may appear to old settlers, having so frequently heard new-comers express their opinion on the subject. Nay, having known in one instance a most desirable settler return to the Australias, at the same time stating "that he would not have done so had there been any possibility of his at once commencing a small dairy of ten or a dozen cows, until such time as he could have brought his open land into something like payable order." Very many of the fat cattle sold in our markets never had any other than bush feed. The assertion "that they will stray into the bush, and after a short time not be seen again," is contrary to all experience, or at most but some exceptional case. On one point precaution is necessary, that in purchasing cattle for a bush run, the settler procure only those bred in the bush; for to take cattle from grass paddocks, and place them at once upon a totally different feed, would be attended with unfortunate results in more ways than one. The outlay of a considerable portion of a poor man's capital in breeding stock, at the very first, and before he has been tempted to encroach upon it for other purposes, has always been one of the wisest steps, and one to which he has looked back in after years with satisfaction. Where, then, the capital is small, one hundred pounds, or thereabouts (too small to admit of entering into active farming operations), page 102at least one-third cannot be better expended than in the purchase of milch cows or heifers in calf.

In all these cases the amount of land to be at first cultivated must be necessarily small, as it will all have to be performed by hand labour. Two acres for the first year is as much as he will be able to till, but if he can let him get this ploughed at once. It must afterwards be broken up with the hoe, the fern roots gathered out and burnt, and if at all wet a good underground drain opened, to carry off the surplus water. Drainage on some soils, particularly heavy clays, is most beneficial—nay, absolutely necessary, for a high state of cultivation. Last year we had an opportunity of observing the force of this remark in a field, part of which had been manured but not drained, and part drained but not manured, the remainder had been neither manured nor drained. The whole was sown with autumn wheat and received in other respects exactly the same tillage. That which was neither manured nor drained was a thin crop, the heads were, however, well filled; the manured but undrained portion was visibly superior; but that which was drained but not manured far surpassed the other two, indeed, during almost the whole time of its growth it could be distinctly pointed out from either of them; while along the line of drains where the yellow clay from beneath had been mixed with the upper soil during the operation of draining, the wheat grew in tall dark green ridges, and yielded an extraordinary increase. Drainage, either natural or artificial, is the foundation of all good farming. Any fertilising properties whatever, with which the soil is enabled to recruit itself, must be derived from the atmosphere and the rains. It stands then to reason that the first object must be to allow both these elements to penetrate and freely circulate in the soil, and in no way can this be accomplished but by deep drainage, The first summer after draining, innumerable cracks and crevices in the clay branch forth laterally from the drains, penetrating in every direction throughout the soil; these become partially filled in wet weather by the lighter and more porous soil which is washed into them, and ever afterwards act in wet weather as conductors from all parts of the surface to the main drain, to which they all converge; while in summer they act in an exactly opposite manner, enabling the heavy clay, by the force of capillary attraction, to draw moisture upwards to the roots of the plants. Well then, if his soil require it, by all means let him not neglect to put in one or two underground drains, and these should not, unless the fall hinder it, be of less than three feet in depth. We have already, in another place, entered more fully into the method of constructing these drains.

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In selecting his two or three acres for cultivation he will of course endeavour to pitch upon the best part of his farm, and with regard to the house, with so small a capital the most economical plan must be adopted. With the labour of a week or two he can construct a raupo hut, or if raupo is not convenient, one of stakes, ti tree, and nikau. Indeed, we have seen a very comfortable make-shift built by a forty-acre man, a baker by trade, the walls of which were built of dry fern sods and the roof of rushes, in which with his wife and child he both appeared and professed to be very comfortably settled until he should be able to turn himself round and make the means to build a more elegant and commodious one. Any of these substitutes if neatly put together and properly roofed are comfortable enough, and possess the main requisite, that of being wind and weather proof. To a man of small capital it is absolute madness to lock up one unnecessary shilling in so unproductive an investment as a house. False pride leads many a one to his ruin in this respect, and we have seen settlers afterwards bitterly repent that they had not roughed it at first, and laid out the money so wasted in young stock, which would by that time have been both a source of present income and have afterwards afforded them the means of building a house more suitable to their requirements. Nothing too is more likely than after a year or two, when the settler has become more thoroughly acquainted with his location, he will discover some other more convenient site for his house—and he will then be glad that he did not make himself a fixture in the first instance. In the same locality where we saw the turf house mentioned above, we were shown the house of a substantial settler who with his family had inhabited it for the last four years, and was then building a more commodious wooden one. It was constructed entirely, roof and sides, of cutting grass or tui-tui tied on to poles the same way as raupo. Higher up on the same creek, within a stone's throw of a newly built comfortable weather-board cottage—and standing in the midst of some thirty acres of highly cultivated land—was the original paling hut of the proprietors, two young men who with a comparatively small capital had commenced farming three years back. Five pounds had been about the cost of the palings, nails, &c. They had wisely roughed it at first, and are now reaping the advantage of their self-denial, while some of their neighbours who went upon the opposite plan, and with far larger means, are now too crippled to make the same headway. But to return, the two or three acres we would recommend him to securely fence. The nature of this fence must to some extent depend upon circumstances, but a four-railed pig-proof fence, where timber is near at hand, would be quickest and best.

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Otherwise a two-railed fence and a ditch. Let him eschew brush fences on the bank of the ditch, they are neither cattle nor pig proof, though nothing can be better if intended only for sheep. Now, as he can only grow a comparatively small amount of produce on a few acres, it becomes a matter of consideration what kind of crops he had better grow. Potatoes should be the main crop, for these reasons—first, because they are, acre for acre, decidedly the most money returning of the farmer's produce; secondly, because a longer time will be at his disposal for preparing the ground for them, as they need not be planted until September, and again because for the first two or three years there is always in new districts a regular demand for them by new arrivals, both for seed and other purposes. One half of the ground should be devoted to the growth of this plant. Half an acre may be sown with wheat, a portion of another half acre with such garden vegetables as may be thought fit, and the remainder of it with oats to cut green for the cattle. Whatever ground remains over the two acres may most profitably be sown with swede turnips. These will be useful for the cattle, will enable him to keep several pigs, and will be the means of forming a heap of manure for the land in the second year.

During the following autumn as many fruit trees as possible of the best sorts should be planted out, at distances of not less than 16 feet from each other. After the potatoes are taken out, the ground may be sown with oats for green food to be cut for the cattle, and again planted with potatoes in the second year. The piece of wheat ground may likewise be sown with potatoes, as likewise the other half acre, and as soon as the second year's crop of potatoes has been dug, grass seed sown upon the two acres. For this the land will require no other preparation than that caused by the digging the potato crop. The ground on which the swedes were grown the first year may have wheat chipped in with the hoe, in June, for the second crop, and come into potatoes the third year. Meanwhile a fresh piece will have been broken up to supply the place of that laid down to grass. Every year the potato land should be laid down in grass. Not only does the grass come best in New Zealand when sown in March, after the potatoes are dug, than after any other crop, but as no extra amount of labour beyond harrowing or raking in the grass seed is required, the working settler will have the more time to devote towards breaking in a fresh piece of ground, while the increased quantity of butter from the use of the grass will materially assist him.

By this time the settler may expect to have become possessed of a pair, or more, of bullocks from his own stock, and will be in a fair way of getting the remainder of his land into page 105cultivation, and his cattle will be yearly increasing. The turnips grown the first year, and the small potatoes, will keep a few pigs, and will, with the consumption of the green feed by the cattle when stockyarded at night, enable him to manure the potato ground for the second year. Both this year and the first, guano or bonedust should be applied to the soil—for the potatoes and turnips 5 cwt. of bonedust per acre sprinkled in the drills along with the sets. To the wheat at least two cwt. of guano per acre sown broadcast before a shower when the young wheat is about three weeks out of the ground. The best time for sowing swede turnips is October. Much after trouble will be saved by sowing these in regular rows at about two and a-half or three feet from each other, thinning the plants out afterwards to a distance of twelve or fifteen inches apart in the drills.

Wherever he is so situated that there would be no fear of annoyance to his neighbours, or where two or three together would agree to work upon the same system of thoroughly fencing in two or three acres for cultivation, and leaving the land outside as a run for their stock—pigs and goats could be profitably kept, the latter anywhere, the former more especially if contiguous to a sea beach or salt water creek. The cost of such an undertaking for a man and his wife would amount in broad figures to something like one hundred and ten pounds. After the first year his cattle and farm will support himself and family, while after the second he will have a team of his own for more extended operations. The outlay will run somewhat as follows:—

	£	s.	d.
2 cows at £13 each	26	0	0
4 heifers at £4	16	0	0
2 steers at 4	8	0	0
One year's rations	35	0	0
Windows for hut	1	0	0
Tools, cooking utensils, &c.	4	0	0
Seed potatoes, 1 acre, 14 cwt. at 6s.	4	4	0
Seed wheat ¾ bushel, oats 2 bushels, and turnip seed	1	0	0
5 cwt, bonedust for potatoes	2	10	0
2½ cwt, bonedust for ½ acre Swedes	1	5	0
1 cwt. guano for wheat	1	0	0
40 fruit trees at 1s. 6d	3	0	0
Carriage of goods from Auckland	3	0	0
Pigs, goats, and poultry	5	0	0
Cash retained in hand	5	0	0
	£115	19	0

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In all new districts he will find, opportunities occurring, whereby he may earn a few pounds in the course of the year—though of course if he can proceed without this drain upon his time, the progress upon his own farm will be so much the greater. We are acquainted with the past history of the settlers of many now flourishing districts, and could point to numbers of individuals whose means at starting were less than the above. But with these narrow means they possessed energy and determination, unceasing industry, and a dogged resolution to undergo any hardship rather than lose the objects for which they started, and which they have now attained—perhaps the most independent situation in which a man can be placed, that of farming his own freehold. By the use of artificial manures, and by their use alone, the land can be depended upon to produce a good crop the first and second years, after that time with proper management the manure made upon the farm will decrease this expenditure to some extent.

One great object with new comers is to curtail as quickly as possible the ruinous waste of time and money consequent on a lengthened stay in Auckland. The future carefully planned out, the cost counted, and the step, when taken, entered upon with energy and perseverance he has little to fear, aye, even though it leave him with but a small margin of cash in pocket; no matter, the way he is setting to work will soon rectify that deficiency, and he stands every chance, nay, may consider it as certain, that in a few years he will be comfortably and independently situated upon his own farm, a result cheaply earned by those hardships and inconveniences which all early settlers in a new colony must expect to pass through, and upon which in after years he will look back with the pleasurable feeling that he had the energy and manliness to overcome them.