The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1923. HOLOINGS AND PRODUCTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 292, 7 December 1923, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1923. HOLOINGS AND PRODUCTS.

Per #*c eeoae ihmt tmcka tnitiiMi, for the vroHg thmt need* rtaiitanee, for the future «m the dietmnee, J Ami the $e*d itiiwcMik

! It is appropriate that in the week, of I "the Show" the Government Statistician j should issue his annual report on agricultural and pastoral production. These I periodical returns, especially when they j are examined over a number of years, , contain valuable information about the J use to which land .is put and the size Jof holdings. As was pointed out in the summary that we published yesterday, ? the outstanding feature of the classiflca--1 tion table in ihie report is the developl raent of dairying at the expense of sheep and cattle raising. Between 1919-20 and ! 1022-23 the number of holdings devoted J to dairying rose from 29,111 to 38,818, ! while the pastoral and other holdings (excluding agricultural) fell from 42,335 ito 36,212. The number of agricultural J holdings slightly increased. The figures emphasise tho intensive nature of dairy , farming. Agricultural holdings numbering . 10,480. aggregate 2,129,802 acres, or : about 200 acres per holding; 38,818 dairy ' farms take up 6,287,597 acres, or about I 160 a4rcs per farm; pastoral and other holdings (36,212) are spread over j 35.255,764 acres, or about 900 acres per ■ property. Yet in 1922 over £14,000,000 I worth of dairy produce was taken off the six and a quarter million acrce of small , holding* sor export. The Statistician's trade return includes butter, cheese, etc., in the table of pastoral products. If we deduct these we get £23,700,000 as the value of meat, wool, hides, tallow .etc. "Agricultural exports" totalled less than a million. It is thus clear, though these figures do not include production for the local market, that in proportion to area dairying is very much more valuable than agricultural or pastoral i farming. A comparison between tlie provinces . is also instructive. The North Auckland •■ land district leads the Dominion in the ' number of its holdings of all sizes— , 13,698. being followed by Canterbury , 13,407. Auckland 12,095, and Wellington i 11,181. Canterbury leads in the first two classes. 1-6 and 6-10 acres, but in I the classes of from 50 to 200 acres both , Auckland districts are well ahead of I the Southern province. The figures of ' the big holdings continue to show marked, differences in distribution. The Auckland district hae 111 properties of between 2000 and 3000 acres; ' Gisborne 131; Hawke's Bay 95; Welling- ; ton 205; Canterbury 175; Otago 142. Generally speaking, the larger the hold- ; ing, the greater the difference between • North and South. In Otago, for ex- ■ j ample, there are 433 holdings of over i3OOO acres; in the two Auckland dis- ■ tricts there are 175. Of course natural conditions account for a great part of j this difference. There arc very large tracts in the South, and in parts of the North Island too, that can only be held in big areas. When these tables are studied, however, it docs not appear that \ the Government is doing all it should do to break up big estates. The number of estates in the four highest classes has remained much the same for some J years, and the process of subdivision is i not likely to be accelerated by the exemption of farmers from income tax. We repeat that large areas of New Zealand land must always be worked in large holdings, but these returns reemphasisc the greater importance of the small holding, especially when we consider how much the return from the average email farm could be increased by more efficient methods. Td realise this it is only necessary to compare the average return of butterfat per cow with what can be obtained from tested herds. The Show will not be of much use to the farmer if it does not drive home this lessen.