40 — 18.i 



THE AGRICULTURAL PAZ TTE. 



(J35 



AGRICULTURE IX SOUTH AUSTRALIA. 



« answer to your inquiries respecting the farming 



s of South Australia, though 1 have made 



quiries wherever I could, I seem to have learnt nothing 



worth writing about. From the extreme dryness of last 



winter, the crops are failures in almost all cases. Wheat 



fjno to If. Id. per bushel. The baker- have raised 

 the price of bread from 3d. to 4d. the 21b. loaf, and 

 ther say it il he higher still. The average price of 

 Wheat here is 3s. 6rf. per bushel. Hay is now 52, per 

 ton, though half that is the usual price. Meat is now 

 Ad. per lb., instead of 3rf., for the best joints. I do not 

 *t all wonder at the latter article rising, if there are 

 manv such tracts of land as we passed over from 

 Adelaide to here — the wonder is how animals are kept 

 ilive. You see wretched brutes snuffing with their 



in the dusty ground, and appearing to look in vain 

 far a blade of Grass ; but further in the country, and 



_ i the hills, I am told there is more food than 

 eould have been expected from the dryness of the season. 

 My husband told me last night about the daily in- 



number of bullocks which were dying from sheer 

 want. The rainy season is anxiously looked forward 

 Id, but many think that the fresh Grass will at first kill 

 both sheep and oxen. You see there will be none of the 

 old left to counteract the effect of the new. The last time 

 I went to Adelaide in the car, a farmer's wife gave me an 

 account of their farming. She had been several years in 

 Adelaide, but two of her children died, and they re- 

 solved to try a country life. She took a section about 

 three miles from Gawler Town, which had a Pine hut 



it : bought half-a-dozen cows, a dray and four 



She said she had built 



spon 



bullocks, 



grand castles in the air about her cows, how she would 



bring butter and milk into Gawler Town. She intended 



to keep the family wifh cows and poultry, and all that 



the farm made was to be saved. 



The husband, by working early and late, prepared a 

 dozen acres of land, and sowed it with Wheat. Thirty 

 bushels per acre are considered a good Australian crop 

 fresh land, but if they had got 20 bushels they would 

 nave been satisfied ; but in consequence of the drought, 

 the north winds had such an effect on the crop that they 

 did not reap 30 bushels from the whole of the land ; 

 and from the cows she had for four months past she had 

 got just sufficient milk from the half dozen to put in her 

 tea night and morning. She said both bullocks and 

 cows must have died from want of water if they had 

 sot got it by sinking a well in the bed of the river. I 

 Ifiked her how they had managed to live, and she said 

 her husband had worked with his bullocks and dray 

 whenever he could get employment, and she had been 

 ible to rear some poultry. The farmer's wife was just 

 the sort of woman to come here — a strong, hard-working 

 woman, and by no means nervous. A few days before 

 I saw her she told me she was sitting at the door of her 

 hat with her baby, when she heard a rustling close to 

 her, and looking she espied a snake gliding amongst the 

 withered Grass ; she dropped the child, and with a wood 

 chopper ran after the reptile, and managed to cut it 

 into five pieces. She said she was terribly frightened 

 at the time, but she knew if it was not killed she dared 

 not stay in the place afterwards. When her son came 

 home he put the pieces together, and found the serpent 

 measured nearly 6 feet. 



I was much amused at the opinion of one gentleman 

 who came to Australia determined to be either a sheep 

 or corn farmer. After he had made an inspection of 

 the country in the neighbourhood of Adelaide, he said 

 u Each sheep would require to be mounted on the back 

 of a pony to be conveyed from one blade of Grass to 

 another." The driver of the car told me that the reason 

 there were bo many thousands of acres unoccupied 

 between here and Adelaide, was from the exposure of 

 the plains to the hot north winds, which scorch every- 

 thing up. There is as yet no system of cropping adopted, 

 except taking as many crops of Wheat off the land as it 

 will produce, and then it is fallowed. The first crop 



^ r tii e fallow is generally hay, consisting of Grass 

 tod Oats mixed (for the Oats do not ripen here), and 

 then begin again with Wheat. Potatoes 

 frown 



the 4 fcV ^ M 



this far when in came 



We are mostly supplied from New Zealand ; 



I had just got 



-~. » M ^, *.*.* o. _„ «»»e farmer's wife 



wye-mentioned ; she could talk of nothing else but 

 tne cattle dying. One of her best cows died yesterday, 

 uteraliy of starvation ; and a neighbour has lost 1 4 head 



at fh p rom tne same cause. Her husband has been 



the Burra mine, aud he said that within a stone's 



wow of one of the water _holes, he counted 100 dead 



oaiiocks! Is it not horrible? TCv«rv nn» ; c i^i-;.^ 



^ . — *— . Every one is looking 



letdT T f ° r - rain ' hut the weather onl y seems t 00 

 ton T °- ni ght there was a most gorgeous sunset ; 



i cannot conceive anything half so beautiful— I wish 

 rould describe it. Fancy all along the western horizon 



that ^ an ex< l u ^ s ^ te P a ^ e green — not blue ; then above 

 nori' stretching their arms over towards the eastern 

 Jf°°» w . ere K g h t fleecy clouds, like branches of trees, 

 ^^ reddish orange colour, and behind and between 



gjj~ clouds w as the deepest blue ;— but a description 



Wi ht^ 1 * 8 SUC ' 1 a scene * • Even tne children were 

 ^g ted, and I could only induce them to come into 



thorn ? USe ' ky promising to hold their hands to enable 



iS p Write a letter t<> England, 

 ne Government price of land is 20s. per acre ; but as 



Poor 

 *fe ur 

 *aditi 



land 



u o[ purchase, at 30*. per acre in five years 

 means they will sometimes eet 15 per cei 



the outlay. Others again let the land for three year-. 

 and for a remuneration get it fenced Mr. Agges, the 

 Independent minister, has just been in ; he has been out 

 on a begging expedition for an Independent hapel, and 

 he spoke with great admiration of the Mount Barker 

 District, the agricultural country of S uttfa Australia : 

 it lies about 30 to 40 miles from here. One farmer 

 with whom he stayed all night, told him that this war 

 he had taken his tenth successive crop of Wheat off the 

 same land, without even putting in a shovelful of 

 manure, and he had got this year above 30 bushels per 

 acre. Another told him that three years a > he bought 

 a section which had been some time in cultivation, lor 

 which he had to pay 400/., the payments stretch: g over 

 three years. From the profits of the Wheat, he lias 

 been enabled to pa}' all off. I fancy these are unusually 

 fortunate cases. 



Badly as we have done, I never for one moment 

 wish we had taken a farm, as I think there is as much 

 risk in that as in any other thing. Certainly we hear 

 often about Germans in parti cul , who, after working 

 and living like slaves for three or four years, have been 

 enabled to become possessors of a section of land ; but 

 in most cases father and sons have been able to do all the 

 work, and they have 1 n accustomed to hard work and 

 privations from their cradles. 



Just imagine what distress the eath of all these 

 bullocks must have caused. Probably many of them 

 belonged to small fanners, who, to m: > up for failing 

 crops, worked upon the ro Is, and bit ween the Hurra 

 and Adelaide for lure ; and what will the] lo when their 

 bullocks are gone ? The price of a working bullock 

 runs from 3/. to 51. 



My husband was down at the Post-ofh last night, 

 [where he met the emigrant whose wife assisted me with 

 the children during a portion of the voyage. They had 

 made some money at first, but had since been unfor- 

 tunate ; but notwithstanding this, the good woman had 

 actually adopted a poor orphan girl. 



I am afraid my letter will be of little service to you, 

 though I hope it will interest you as a practical fanner. 

 I will write to you from time to time, whenever I can 

 gather as much as will fill a letter. Gawltr Town,, 5 mth 

 Australia, 25th If arch, 1851. 



state of < 



which will be at 



lie drills 



are laid in a direction 

 angle with th< >ughtqg of the 

 land for the succeeding grain crop, though in many 

 both processes are done in the same direction. On 

 deep light loams the drills are made by a double 

 mould-board plough, which makes a ridgelet by 

 travelling the ) ;th of the field, forming two drills 

 in going and returning. This plough is of somewhat 

 difficult management, owing to the double-fcathered 

 share gliding upon and not penetrat 1 the bottom of 

 the land, and the two wings or mould-boards resisting 

 a downward tendency, and heaving the plough upwards^ 

 The common plough is u d in forming drills I going 

 twice in one furrow ; and though double time is con- 

 sumed, the mode is much the m t preferable. In the 

 quicker operati is of modern times, drills are formed 

 by one furrow of the common plough, and the dung is 

 covered by two; which, however, implies that the 

 soil is a good Turnip loam. In the majoritjr of 

 cases, the common plough i> preferable to the double 

 mould hoard, i .specially whei the surface of the ground 



is formed of some number pf crumbling clay clods, 

 and when the bottom is clayey, gra> « lly, or a hard con* 

 cret earth. The double mould-board* plough is unable 

 to penetrate the stiff bottom, and the whip push t 



thcr th clods of the surface, which form the top of the 

 drill, and affi 1 to the Turnip seed a bed of dry clods, 

 without moisture or loamy adhesion. Th< common 



plough, with the angular pointed slian , penetrates the 



ground, and throws to the surface a fresh moisture 

 raised from beneath, in which the Turnip seed vegetates, 

 and grows rapidly. This superiority is now most deci- 

 sively established. 

 Farms of 400 acres 



and 



THE CULTURE OF THE TURNIP. 

 The Turnip plant is most usually inclined to grow on 

 light loams and sand lands : but the growth oi it has 

 been gradually extended to soils of a heavier sort, that 

 have been rendered more friable by the processes of 

 cultivation. The use of it in the fields began in Norfolk, 

 where the soils are favourable, and where the ploughing anu * returning. 





upward? Unit the largest 

 arrangement — of two plouglia, forming drills with one 

 furrow, at the average rate of right acres daily ; five 

 or six one-hor arts will bring forward and deposit 

 the dung, three or four men are engaged in filling the 

 dung at the hea . four boys drive the carts to end 

 from the field and the heap, one lad leads the cart, 

 being emptied, along the three drills that receive the 

 dung, a very steady man pulls the dung from the carts 

 into regular heaps of a mail size, a man separates the 

 heaps into three parts into the three drills, tin - e women 

 or stout lads provided with light three-prosged forks, 

 spread the dung evenly along the furrow ; a very careful 

 man follows the spreaders, places any neglect in the 

 proper place, calls and con ts the spreadecs, and 

 the work properly done. Three common ploughs follow 

 closely after the spreaders, and »ver the dung with two 

 furrows to each drill, and finish one ridgelet in going 



are provided with main 



a^i? 





of land with two horses, yoked abreast, was observed b) 

 Mr. Dawson, the son of a Scotch border farmer, who 

 went there for the purpose of acquiring general know- 

 ledge. He had seen Jethro Tull's book, in which was 

 propounded the theory of sowing all crops in rows or 

 drills, and he hence conceived the idea of forming drills 

 or ridgelets by the common plough. Mr. Dawson's first 

 attempt near Kelso was unsuccessful on a harsh clay 

 land. But having soon afterwards removed to a very 

 favourable soil of sharp gravelly loam, on the north slope 

 of the Cheviot hills, his success was unbounded, and 

 Turnip farming in the hands of the border farmers, on 

 the very favourable soils of that country, soon raised 

 the cultivation of the plant to the present just pre- 

 eminence which it has there attained. The general 

 field culture of the Turnip may be dated about the 

 year 1760. 



Turnips form the second crop in the most approved 

 rotations on light lands, and thrive best after Oats, 

 which are most generally the first crop after Grass, 

 which begins the course. From whatever cause it may 

 arise, the fact is certain, that Turnips thrive better after 

 a crop of Oats than after any other plant, either 

 culmiferous or leguminous. So soon as the harvest is 

 completed, the Oat stubble is ploughed to the depth of 

 6 to 8 inches, so soon as the early winter rains will 

 have moistened the soil. In this state the land lies till 

 March, or till the dry weather allows it to be cross- 

 ploughed, when the harrows and roll, used alternately, 



The ploughs 



trees of five i t in length, which stretch over two 

 drills, and enables the left hand horse to walk on the 

 top of the drill on the near side, which prevents the feet 

 of the animal from removing or pushing about the dung 

 lying in the hollow, if the h< te walked in the interval* 

 In returning, the hor walk in two hollows, with one 

 between, in which the plough moves and throws the 

 earth over the right hand drill, which was covered from 

 the left side by the first cleaving of the ridgelet The 

 double Turnip drill sower follows closely the covering 

 ploughs, and deposits the seed on the freshly moved 

 soil. Eight acres can be finished in a day by this 

 arrangement. 



If the season of Turnip sowing be dry, and the land 

 cloddy, rolling of the drills is very necessary on the day 

 after being sown. In damp weather, and on moist soils, 

 the light roll attached to the sower may be sufficient, 

 or the rut of the coulter may be left entire, as the sides 

 of it protect the young plants which grow in the hollow. 

 But in the case of cloddy soils and a dry season, the 

 quick rolling of the drills is most essential ; it breaks 

 the clods, presses the seeds close to the dun^ and in 

 imbibing and retaining moisture it acts as a lock and 

 key. Without that operation the seeds lie among dry 

 clods or parched dust, and in many cases never vegetate 

 at all from the want of moisture, and of that degree of 

 pressure which is necessary to attach the tender germi- 

 nation to the soil or future bed. 



The most indispensable and essential requisite in sowing 



crush the clods and raise the weeds, which are picked [ Turnips is dispatch or quickness of execution in getting 



A similar process the different processes performed, so as to keep in store 



for the use of the young plant the moisture that may be 



by hand, and removed from the field, 

 of ploughing and harrowing is done in about 1 4 days 

 after the first operation, when the weeds and stones are 

 again removed. Four clear earths are, at an average, 

 reckoned sufficient to clean lands, and to bring them 

 into a proper state of pulverisation. Lands intended to 

 be sown with Swedish Turnips in May should have 

 received two clear earths by the first of that month, 

 and must get another about a week before the sowing 

 commences ; the lands to be sown with common Turnips 

 in June should get two or three earths by the beginning 

 of that month. The ploughing before the drilling of the 

 land should be done across the field, as the drill plough 

 is always inclined to slide into, and follow the longitudinal 

 furrow, and lose the proper direction. By crossing the 

 last done ploughing, it has no inducement to any lateral 



direction. 



The dung from the farm-yard must have been laid in 

 oblong heaps on the headland or near the gateway, and 

 turned over, in order to commence the fermentation 

 about 10 days before the use of the dung is intended. 

 Upon this fermentation being produced at the proper 

 time, and upon its going on briskly at the moment when 

 the dung is deposited in the drills, and the seed placed 

 within the reach of the exhalations and combin ons 

 that are happening during the fermentative process, and 

 the recent movement of the soil, the success of the 

 Turnip crop very much depends while in its embryo 



in the soil, and to prevent it from escaping. The time 

 of the year is the driest in the whole cycle — the sun is 

 generally hot and parching, and rains are unfrequent, 

 and fall at distant intervals. In such cases— and they 

 are very general, the moisture in the land forms the only 

 dependence, and in order to retain it for the uses of the 

 young plant, a very considerable exertion becomes 

 necessary. After the beginning, the drills must be 

 opened only half an hour before they are closed again, 

 in order to" prevent the exposure of the land to drought; 

 the dung-carts must be close upon the drilling ploughs ; 

 the covering ploughs working within three drills of the 

 dung being spread, and the seed sowing machine finishes 

 the process of depositing the seed upon every tyvo drills 

 immediately as the ploughs leave them. The multi- 

 tudinous number of farming implements yet wants a 

 roll for the purpose of pressing the bottom, sides, and 

 top of the drills, and present a very beautiful finish of 

 sowing Turnips on the finer kind of loams. A log of 

 wood must be hollowed into the shape of the drill, and 

 secured by iron hoops at the ends and thick parts. 

 Cast iron has been attempted, but the bottom and 

 sides are not properly pressed. During the want of 

 such an implement, the drills are rolled by a cast-iron 

 cylinder of 6 cwt. 

 " Turnips must be sown thickly, not under 3 to i lbs. 



• 



