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(continued)
The Symes, Batson and
Sherwood Creamery Company Haycroft.
A number of leading businessmen and farmers
in Nhill and the surrounding district were interested in building a Butter and
Bacon Factory at Nhill.
In March 1893, a public meeting was held at
the Nhill Mechanics Institute. At
the meeting it was decided that places within the Nhill district be assigned
representatives to promote the establishment of branches of the proposed Butter
and Bacon Factory. Branches were to be established by holding meetings in the
various centres and canvassing support of the local population. Tarranginnie and
Diapur were to be represented by Charles Sherwood.
At that same meeting, Charles, keen to support the idea, described the
workings of a creamery he had visited at Mt. Gambier:
He
(Charles) had found one man who took his milk there had netted £4 a month from
three cows. A sister in law of his
who had a separator had tried a comparative experiment.
She set a quantity of milk in pans in the ordinary way and skimmed it;
she then put a similar quantity through the separator and made a pound of butter
more out of the latter than out of the former.
By July Charles and a neighbour, W. T.
Symes had organised the first meeting of farmers interested in building a
creamery at Haycroft. The purpose
of the meeting was to ensure enough shares were subscribed and enough cows
promised in order to justify the undertaking.
This was achieved by the close of the meeting. Further meetings were to
follow at which Charles, Symes and George Batson were said to have spoken
enthusiastically of the venture. Those present at the meetings were said to be
unanimously in favour of the project.
At one stage the future of the scheme
seemed in doubt. Not to be
discouraged and recognising the advantages of a local creamery, the above
gentlemen wrote to the provisional directors of the Nhill Butter and Bacon
Company. Their letter was published, 13 September 1893, in the Nhill
Mail.
Enterprising Farmers
As you don't see your way to
erect and start a creamery at Haycroft, we the undersigned are prepared to buy
and erect one and also a building for same, if you buy the milk at Nhill rates
and allow 10 shillings Per week
for running it through, provided the supply does not exceed 120 gallons per day.
If at the end of 12 months the company thinks fit to take it over at
cost price we are prepared to
hand it over to you. We are quite
prepared to take outsiders milk and separate it at a farthing per gallon.
W.T. Symes, C. Sherwood, Geo
Batson.
The paper went on to say the
conditions laid down in the letter were accepted by the directors of the company
and a building has since been erected on Symes farm.
The Haycroft Creamery was officially opened 18 September
1893.
The
Symes, Batson and Sherwood Creamery Company, Haycroft
A
very pleasing ceremony took place on Monday at the farm of Mr. W.T. Symes, about
four miles from Nhill, when the
inauguration of a creamery separator took place. There was a large
attendance.....The fact of the machinery being purchased and the building in
which it was housed erected by three local gentlemen constituted a new
departure, and one to be marked with special emphasis.
The conditions under which the creamery is worked were
published in the "Mail" of Wednesday last. The building is
about 14 feet by 10 feet, and appears to be suitable for
the purposes of a creamery. The walls are of corrugated iron, eight feet
high. The floor is cemented upon broken
metal, and the straw roof, with well-ventilated gables, gives the
impression that coolness has been secured at a
minimum of expenditure. The whole outlay for building and machinery only
amounts to E70. It may be mentioned that the whole of the labour in erecting the
building was
given free by the local promoters of the enterprise. The
driving power is obtained from Mr. Symes horseworks.
On one of the horses being dispensed with, a single horse worked the separator,
apparently without much effort. The
machinery was set in motion about four o'clock, and the
creamery inaugurated by Mr. M. Kozminsky who turned on the milk tap of the supply tank,
and shortly afterwards the
Alexandra separator was pouring a continuous stream of creamery
from one of its spouts into the vessel while from the other issued the separated milk in very much
large volume.
After this had been witnessed for some time MT. M. Kozminsky invited all
present to drink to the health of the promoters
of the new institution, which he christened the "Symes, Batson and
Sherwood Company." Very great credit was due to
them for the enterprise they had shown, and which, he had no doubt, would
be crowned with success. Indeed, owing to the low price of wheat, the salvation
of the district would depend upon the successful management of butter factories
and creameries. If other localities would follow the example of Messrs. Symes,
Batson and Sherwood, the land of the district would again soon rise to E4 per
acre. It afforded him very much pleasure to be present at the opening of the
creamery, and he hoped other districts would follow the good example of the
people at Haycroft. All present were then invited to partake of an excellent
luncheon laid out in first class style at Mr. Syme's residence and Mesdames
Symes, Batson, and the Misses Sherwood and Batson were unremitting in the
cordial hospitality shown towards their guests.
A similar coverage of the event was
reported in the Nhill Free Press, 19 September 1893.
Both the Nhill Free Press and Nhill Mail newspapers were keen to report
on agricultural and pastoral matters to their readers.
The Nhill Mail published a series of
articles on methods adopted by a number of successful farmers in the district.
A reporter from that paper visited Charles on his farm at
Haycroft. The outcome of that visit
appears below.
Mr.
C. Sherwood's Farm at Haycroft.
I
had heard on quite a number of occasions from different people that Mr. Sherwood
was farming his land in a systematic manner and was being rewarded for his
energy and industry by reaping superior crops and in other ways.
I thought, therefore, that a visit to his farm and a chat with him might
result in publicity being given to something which would ultimately be of value
to the less successful farmers in other parts of the
district.
That there are less successful farmers in the district now admits of no
doubt whatever in my mind; and, if they should happen to be benefited in any
shape or form by being made acquainted with the methods adopted by men who have
been steadily prospering while they have been gradually losing ground in a
double sense, these articles will not have been written in vain. No sooner had I
entered Mr. Sherwood's gate on the Mount Elgin road, and commenced to drive
along the road leading to his house between his crops, than I was confronted
with unmistakable careful farming.
On one side of
the track was what I can only describe, after seeing a large number of inferior
crops this season, as a magnificent wheat field. On the other side of the road was what appeared to be a fair
crop of oats. The wheat gave promise of a heavy yield, and the return would,
doubtless, have been particularly good but for the damage done in places by the
excessive rainfall during the season. Nevertheless,
it may be very safely predicted that the cleaning up will show the yield from
the paddock to be a long way above the average return for the district.
The
exceptional cleanness of the crop rather surprised me.
Scarcely a bit of "rubbish" was to be seen anywhere. In fact, it may be said that there was an entire absence of
wild oats and other foreign growths, which do so much in some parts of the
district to pull down the average output and depreciate the value of crops.
I noticed, too, before reaching the house that Mr. Sherwood had
subdivided his land into several paddocks of handy size, presumably as part of
his system of farming. Finding Mr.
Sherwood at home I was shown over his superior farming.
There I saw what is not to be seen on many of our farms namely, a good
stack of straw, an abundant supply of hay, and a stack of oaten ensilage.
Of ensilage there were about 30 tons heavily weighted with logs of wood,
and by pulling a handful out of the stack the first class quality of the fodder
was easily detected. Mr. Sherwood
informed me that he had made a stack of ensilage every year for the last four
years, and had proved it to be of great value on a farm.
His stock, and especially his cows are very fond of the fodder.
He prefers the stack ensilage to that made in the pit and pointed out to
me that, although there was usually a little of what some people called waste on
the outside of the stack, store stock would always eat it readily.
After
inspecting I had a look at Mr. Sherwood's stables and sheds and found them to be
substantial and affording ample accommodation for all requirements. Then I saw
that he had several fine pigs in his styes that there were a number of fowls
about the place, and that he had 17 milch cows which merited admiration.
His horses, too, included some splendid stamps.
The house presented an appearance of neatness and comfort and was
surrounded by a small garden consisting of fruit trees of various kinds, flowers
etc. The garden, though showing
signs of having been well worked has not made very satisfactory headway and Mr.
Sherwood could not account for it's backwardness~ However, altogether I was
impressed with the completeness of the homestead and the signs of prosperity and
contentment which came under my observation.
Needless to say, Mr. Sherwood has not got into his present comfortable
position without some years of hard work and earnest endeavour.
He has not, however, been placed in the position of being able to call
his farm his own and look upon his improvements, stock, machinery, etc. as his
own property simply by incessant toil. Slavery
alone will not establish a farmer. If it would do so many of our farmers now
leading lives of continual worry and uncertainty would be in very different
circumstances to those in which they are at present placed.
While Mr. Sherwood has done his share of that hard work - I might almost
say drudgery - which no farmer in this colony can escape, he has been helped
into the position he now holds by systematic farming.
It is about
thirteen years ago since Mr. Sherwood settled at Haycroft.
He had previously been farming near Mt. Arapiles, but the superiority of
the land in this district brought him hither.
On coming here he did not place sole in wheat growing, but devoted a
little attention to dairying - a line in which he has now been engaged for
something like 25 years altogether. For
a number of years he supplied several customers in Nhill with butter, but when
the local creamery and butter factory company was formed Mr. Sherwood was one of
the first to afford it his support. Subsequently
he co operated with Messrs. W. T. Symes and Geo Batson, and purchased the
separator which has now been in successful operation at Haycroft for some
months. At the time of my visit Mr.
Sherwood was supplying about 25 gallons of milk daily to the creamery, which
would bring him a nice little cheque at the end of the month.
He was also rearing several calves on the separated milk, and all of them
appeared to be thriving well on the diet. Such
of the milk as is not required for calves, Mr. Sherwood gives to his pigs and
fowls. It may be here mentioned
that the pigs considerably supplement the income from the farm.
Hitherto Mr. Sherwood has been selling about twenty pigs every year,
"but I see that there's some thing in them now that dairying is going
ahead," he remarked to me, "and I intend breeding on a much larger
scale".
Until
about six years ago Mr. Sherwood cropped nothing but wheat.
His land then began to get "dirty". Awakening to the necessity
of improving matters, he put wheat in half his cultivation paddock, and sowed
oats on the balance. "And what
was the result?" I inquired. "Well", said Mr. Sherwood, "I
got seven bags of oats to the acre and half a crop of wheat, the balance being
"rubbish". So I found out
that oats was what the land wanted. I
next put in 25 acres of oats and a similar area of wheat on fallowed land.
I got eight bags of oats to the acre, and in place of the wheat I had a
crop of "rubbish". "The
next year", he continued, "I ploughed all the paddock up pretty early. A lot of "rubbish" came up, and I put the scarifier
into it. I sowed part of it with
wheat, then harrowed the land twice and reaped four bags to the acre.
This was the result of the oats. Where I sowed oats the same year I got
seven bags to the acre, and that was from land which wouldn't produce wheat at
all." The varieties of oats
which Mr. Sherwood cultivates are Calcutta and Algerian.
This season he had
160 acres of
oats and similar area of wheat under cultivation.
The system which he is now following is this: He takes a crop of wheat
off a piece of land and then a crop of oats.
In the third year he throws the land "out" and keeps it
"fed down" with sheep and cattle. In the fourth year he fallows the
land, and after this treatment he looks for a good crop of not less than
eighteen or twenty bushels to the acre. "The
mistake made by a great many," observed Mr. Sherwood, "is that they
fellow their land, put a few sheep on it, and think it requires no further
attention."
It was then
explained to me that a piece of land now in Mr. Sherwood's possession had been
"fed off" with sheep and was thought to be allright.
The land was afterwards sown with wheat but no crop appeared.
"As soon as I get the land fellowed," said Mr. Sherwood,
"I harrow it and when the weeds commence to grow I begin to use the
scarifier." "So you
believe in keeping the soil well worked?" I remarked.
"Yes", was the answer to which Mr. Sherwood added that some
people had told him they could "carry" a sheep to the acre on fallowed
land but that he could not "carry" one to twenty acres.
If a good crop is aimed at, Mr. Sherwood advises the thorough working and
cleaning of the land. "You
don't want to be always ploughing fresh ground and putting in nothing but
wheat" are the words in which he expressed himself to me.
Last year, as a
result of his system of cultivation, he got more than his average yield.
This means that he reaped a harvest of over eighteen bushels of wheat to
the acre and that he got ten bags of oats to the acre off fellowed land.
He told me that he expected lower returns than usual this year owing to
the wetness of the season. Questioned as to his opinion in reference to sheep
farming, Mr. Sherwood said he considered it desirable that farmers should keep a
few sheep. He has a flock himself,
and differs from those who argue that sheep make land "dirty".
In fact, he considered that sheep benefit land to a much greater extent
than horses and cattle. He sees that a combination of industries, or commonly called
"mixed farming", must be followed by those who desire to make and
retain homes on the land. In this respect he maybe said to be qualified to speak
from experience. Mr. Sherwood
thinks that if there were some means of interchange of opinion amongst farmers
in reference to farm management generally, producers would be greatly benefited,
and in this light he looks upon the agricultural bureaux system of South
Australia with much favour.
The year 1897 didn't get off to a promising start for Charles.
In February he lost a number of horses through milk fever.
Death of Draught Horses.
We
regret to learn that Mr. Charles Sherwood of Haycroft the other day lost five
valuable draught horses under peculiar circumstances.
Recently Mr. William Sherwood (Charles's son) took a team from the farm
to the Riverina and amongst those remaining were mares with young foals. These
had been weaned for about a week and the mother's regularly attended to. As
the mares looked thin Mr. Sherwood thought they might be suffering from a
complaint known
as sand and determined to administer turpentine in a pint of milk, which is
considered not a large dose. On the following morning however, three of the
mares were found dead and a fourth has since succumbed.
Whether some other deleterious material got mixed with the turpentine or
not is not known, as the remnants of that given to the horses has not been
analysed, but post mortem examination of the horses' stomachs showed that the
coating had been burnt away and that the stomach had swollen to twice their
normal size.
The Nhill Free Press 16 February
1897 covered the death of the horses and reported that...
A post mortem examination of
the stomachs was made and from certain circumstances revealed, it was
concluded that death in every instance had been caused by milk fever. Mr.
Sherwood valued the horses at 20 pounds each.
In July 1897, Charles purchased an additional 319 acres,
allotments 74 and 75 at Tarranginnie. The
purchase price was 320 pounds.
When Charles died early in May 1915, the following glowing
tribute was paid to him:
Once
again the community has been startled and shocked by the sudden passing hence of
one of our grand old pioneers who had advanced well into the evening of life. In
this instance we have to chronicle the death of Mr. Charles Sherwood, one of the
few who remain of that gallant band of wayworn manly men who pioneered this
great southern land. It was men who
possessed stamina similar to the late Charles Sherwood who were the pathfinders
that opened out the provinces; that paved the way and courageously bore the heat
and burden of the day in order to develop Australia for the present day
generation. A glimpse was flashed on the mental vision of the men of his day of
boundless possibilities of the future - of development and expansion
immeasurable. The achievements of
those men of the early days and the romance of the interior settlement, and the
Wimmera particularly, stands out boldly like a glimmering ray of glory.
Born in
Cambridgeshire, England, in 1836, deceased came out, via the Cape of Good Hope,
to Glenelg (Adelaide) with his parents in the fine old sailer
"Amazon", when he was 19 years of age - in 1855.
He was at once engaged on Bowman's station at Crystal Brook, north of
Adelaide, where he was employed for 7 years. Afterwards he went to the Mt.
Gambier district where he married Miss Charlotte Batton.
After executing various contracts deceased engaged in farming at Penola,
but was attracted to the Wimmera in the early seventies and, after residing at
Mt. Arapiles for 5 years, Mr. Sherwood came to this district and selected on the
old Mt. Elgin run at Haycroft where he resided until a few years ago, when he
retired from active farming and purchased a property in Nhill.
During recent
years he devoted his whole attention to the advancement of the local A. and P.
Society, of which body he was one of the founders, and was a member since its
inception in 1882. As chairman of
the Society's ground committee his place will be difficult to fill; it was
always his endeavour to see that the right kind of entertainments were provided
for the children on show days and he also kept a watchful eye on the ground
arrangements. The late Mr. Sherwood
was familiarly referred to as the "father" of the society.
Widespread
regret was expressed in the town and throughout the district when the news of
his death was circulated. He had
not enjoyed the best of health recently, and as he had reached the ripe age of
79, his family were not altogether surprised when he passed away peacefully on
Tuesday morning at 7 a.m. He was
engaged in conversation with his son William when the call came. The late Mr.
Sherwood did not hesitate to candidly express his opinion on any question; his
sound advice and excellent judgment could always be relied upon. Being a man of
the highest integrity, possessing a generous nature, and a devoted father to his
children, the late Charles Sherwood is one who will be keenly missed; the town
and district can ill afford to lose men of his calibre.
Deceased
leaves six daughters and one son to mourn their loss, viz, Mrs. Thos Taylor
(Culcairn, N.S.W.), Mrs. F.H. Duffield (Wolseley), Mrs. W.C. Hensley (Lockhart,
N.S.W.), Mrs. W. Wilson (Nhill), Miss Sherwood and Miss Jessie Sherwood, Nhill
and Mr. Wm R. Sherwood, Mt. Elgin. The
deepest sympathy is felt for the bereaved family.
The remains were interred in the Nhill cemetery yesterday afternoon when
the funeral was very largely attended. The
members of the A. and P. Society marched at the head of the cortage. Many beautiful wreaths were placed on the grave including one
from the members of the Nhill A. and P. Society. The pallbearers were Messrs. Geo. Batson, H.E. Dahlenburg,
C.A.F.Gladigau, Jas. Pilgrim senr. Peter Bone junior, and C.H. Towne.
The Rev L. Walton, of the Nhill Methodist Church conducted an
impressive funeral at the graveside.
Last Will and Testament of
Charles Sherwood junior.
Dated 14-9-1913
To Charlotte May
Proceeds of life policy 200 pounds plus bonuses
. Enlarged photo of my wife.
To Daisy Grace Wilson
Piano
Eva Sherwood granddaughter.
Colonial Mutual Life Assurance Policy 100 pounds set aside and invested
for the benefit of Eva until she reaches the age of 21 when paid to her.
Charlotte May Sherwood guardian of Eva Sherwood.
William Robin all horses and
livestock, crown allotments fifty four and fifty-five, parish of Tarranginnie,
county of Lowan. Containing 5 hundred + ? 7 acres, subject to his payment of 450
pounds to each of my 6 daughters.
Charlotte, Jessie, Lily to
occupy rent free my house at Loch St. Nhill, where I now reside, while they
remain unmarried. My buggy and
horse to be used by my unmarried daughters.
©
R J Sherwood. 2001
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Charles and Charlotte Sherwood
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