WHEAT CULTl UE. 277 



The above is based on an 8-hour day. For the crop thai follows maize 

 one ploughing is sufficienl ; but for the long-season crop following the fodder 

 crop two ploughings are usual, and the additional ploughing would cosl an 

 extra <>s. (id., being more easily and quickly accomplished than the first 

 ploughing. 



For hay. we like to cut the wheat in the flowering or early grain 

 No grain, 01 only shrivelled grain, is preferred to fully matured grain in a 



>aniple of hay chaff. As the object IS to gel stock to eat the whole plant, it 

 is well to eiit the crop when the nutriment is hest distributed throughout 

 the plant and when palatability is also greatest, and these things are both 

 secured by cutting at the sttge indicated. 



In harvesting hay for chaffing purposes in the .Nrw England district 

 special care is necessary in stooking the sheaves. The method adopted on 

 the farm is to set up four sheaves in each stook (two and two in a diamond) 

 ami then tie them together with a band of hay. A good spread is given to 

 the sheaves at the bottom to enable them to dry quickly and to prevent them 

 from being blown over. The cost of stooking for hay and chaff is a littl 

 greater than for grain. 



Throughout the district, the stacks built are all round ones, and if well 

 made they require no thatching, aud will throw any water off. 



Estimated cost of producing an acre of wheat for chaff in New England — 



Estimated yield, 2 tons. 



Ploughing, once (land previously under cultivation) 

 Harrowing, twice, at Is. 4d. per acre 

 Drilling... 



Seed, 90 lb. at 7s. 6d. per bushel ... 

 Superphosphate, £ cwt. at 7s. per cwt. 

 Pickling seed at 4d. per bushel, 1^ bushels per acre 

 Cutting with binder ... 

 Twine, 5 lb. per acre at S^d. lb. 

 Stooking for hay 

 Carting and stacking .. . 

 Cutting for chaff, 2 tons at 12s. per ton ... 

 Bags, 2 doz. per ton, at 8s. per doz. 

 Rent, one year 



Cartage to rail, 5 miles distant, at 5s. per ton ... 

 General depreciation, and interest charges on horses 

 and plant 



Total cost of 2-ton crop 



SHARE-FARMING. 



Share-farming was first introduced into New South Wales about the 

 year 1896, on the Iandra Estate, near Grenfell, and the favourable results 

 which at once attended it there and that have followed it wherever it has 

 been tried, have led to its general adoption. It is not confined to wheat- 

 growing, but has been extended to dairying and pig-raising, and other 

 branches of farming. It is easy to become a share-farmer, but it is harder 

 to remain one, for the reason that share-farming opens the way to the 

 farmer to procure land of his own — to farm on his own account. This step 

 has been quickly and surely taken by many men in New South Wales, who 

 began with little or no capital. 



