VALUE OF IRRIGATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19485, 15 November 1926, Page 22

VALUE OF IRRIGATION.

EXPERIMENTS !N OTAGO. UTILISING WASTE LAND. WORK AT GALLOWAY FARM. Since the Government of New Zealand first began to spend large sums of money on providing irrigation works for Centra! Otago there have been many official articles published regarding the possibilities of irrigation, but practically no information has been given regarding the actual returns from the lands irrigated. In the New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, October issue, there is an interesting article by Mr. R. B. Tenuent, of ths New Zealand Department of Agriculture on the Galloway Irrigation Farm from which one can gain some idea of the stock(tarrying capacity of irrigated land but without the monetary cost of providing litis stock with food.

Mr. Tenneni says: Situated some five miles from the town of Alexandra the Galloway Irrigation farm lies in the heart of the semi-arid region of Central Otago. Its area comprises approximately 149 acres of which 89 acres arc served by water from tho Manor Burn dam. When the Galloway farm was taken over by the New Zealand Agricultural Department, in 1921 the vegetation existing thereon was of an extremely sparse nature carrying roughly one sheep to 10 acres. Shortly after the inception of the farm it became apparent that a very definite demonstration of dairy farming in irrigated country would become most desirable with a view to ascertaining its possibilities on comparatively small holdings and at the same time giving a lead to other settlers desirous of taking up this type of farming. The somewhat precarious and unstable condition of tho fruit industry emphasised the necessity of utilising irrigation areas for other purposes besides fruit growing and. dairying offered the most reasonable likelihood of an assured income and comfort ablo livelihood. The chief work at present being carried out at Galloway Irrigation Farm is therefore the production of butter-fat. The Farm's Dairy Herd. The dairy herd at the time of writing is in the main composed of purebred Ayrshire cattle. In all there are 57 head of stock on the farm of which 30 are Ayrshire, four Red Polls and the remainder crossbred animals. The produc- * tion of the head at present is only moderate, last year's average being 238.261b. of tmtter-fat per cow. There, at last, we have some definite particulars regarding the farming of irrigated lands in Central Otago. Evidently dairying is looked on as the surest and best method of securing returns and on the Galloway farm, according to Mr. - Tennent, it is anticipated that 50 head of milking cows, 10 young cattle and six other animals caw. bo successfully carried on the 89 acres of irrigated land, equal ' to one head to 1.3 acres. This is quite a good return so far as stock-carrying capacity is concerned and is equal to some of the best dairying land in New Zealand, but the total area of the Galloway farm is 149 acres and nothing is said regarding the returns from the remainder of the land. If it is non-irri-gable it should in its normal state be carrying about one" sheep to 10 acres, equal to about one cow to the 60 acres. This would bring the average capacity of the farm to about two acres of land to each head of stock, not by any means a bad average. It may be assumed that the Galloway farm is typical of the irrigable lands of Central Otago and was no doubt chosen as an example for dairying purposes. According to the report quoted the two chief crops used is dairying are irrigated grass aui secondly irrigated lucerne and although, as Mr. Tennent points dut, the raising of supplementary crops in addition to these would be a distinct benefit, the dairy farmer who "has a good stand of lucerno could do without them. North Island Lands. It will be of great advantage to New Zealand if the dry areas of Central Otago can be turned into profitable dairy farms, orchards and other forms of productive use, even if it costg up to £l6 an acre or more for the supply of water and entails the extra labour of winter feeding, and cultivation, and the State will be justified in its expenditure of large sums of money on this class of work, but if the State is justified in spending money in irrigation works in Otago for tho purpose of making productive about 300,000 acres of irrigable lands it would be more than justified in devoting money for the purpose of making productive the millions of idle in the central districts of the North Island. Tho State possesses 700,000 acres of land between Rotorua and Taupo; the Maoris also hold large areas in that part of New Zealand all of which at present is lying idle and useless. For a far less expenditure per aero than is necessary to make dairy farming, stock fattening and fruitgrowing possible in Otago it could make all these things possible on a much large scale in the Northern districts and if our statesmen were broad enough minded to realise this fact and to act upon it abundant work could be found for all the immigrants likely to he attracted to New Zealand and profitable holdings provided for thousands of new farmers.