SETTLING POOR LAND.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 52, 2 March 1929, Page 20

SETTLING POOR LAND.

OFFER TO THE GOVERNMENT. | HALVING PRESENT COSTS. "There is too much of the parrot cry, more production, more production!" said Jlr. W. D. Keys, who has he J. much experience in the work of oreaking in land. He was explaining to a "Star" reporter an offer to give free of all cost, under Government supervision, a practical demonstration of the feasibility of breaking in land at half the present cost. He said there was no good going on crying out about more production, unless one was prepared to show how it could be done. At the present time when there was a demand to put more men on the land, and when so many men were out of work there was more than ever nee' for some business-like method of deainig with the land problem. The old system of a man going on a section, and working his heart out trying to make a farm single-handed was no good to-day when more up to date methods were available. To-day the thing should be done on a wholesale scale, and a man should not be asked to go on to a bare section; he «hould be given a section with at least forty acres in grass so that he could begin right away to earn something with his cows. Mr. Keys takes a typical section of •ay one hundred acres of gum-land and maintains that it could be broken in at a cost of from £4 to £5 an acre, whereas under the old system it would cost anything up to £8. He guarantees to demonstrate that it is possible to )>ut a settler on the land, on a one mndred acre section for from £800 to £1200, whereas under the present wasteful system it would cost double that amount. If settlers drifted on to the land, as it were, each man had far higher overhead expenses than he could possibly bear, and the result was that in nine cases out of ten the struggle was too much and he gave it up. Nowadays land should be broken-in In a wholesale manner, and then by a system of co-operation groups of four settlers could get together so as to lighten the overhead charges. Each one would keep one horse instead of a team, and work would be done by combining the four—just as at the present time forccs were joined for hay-making. The great desideratum in breaking In bind was to get grass, said Mr. Keys. On gum-land the present method of ploughing and treating the soil Avas quite wrong in principle. On such land it was not necessary to do more than prepare a good clean seed bed. without turning the 'valuable and richest top-soil underneath, where its humus and fertility were lost. After the bed was once prepared the secret of success was in topdressing. Air. Keys says the system outlined has been approved by prominent agriculturists, and he is confident that if given an opportunity he could demonstrate to the ffovernmcnt that land could be brought in at a price that would cause a complete revolution in settlement of land, much of which was at present considered' almost useless.