TE KAUWHATA STATE FARM.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 224, 21 September 1929, Page 18

TE KAUWHATA STATE FARM.

A PROSPEROUS YEAR. EXPERIMENTS IN PROGRESS SPLENDID LAMBING SEASON. (From Our Own Correspondent.) TE KAUWHATA, this day. With the advent of spring, work is being pushed ahead with great activity on the Te Kauwhata State I arm. 1 runin"- in the vineyard has been completed, and gangs of .workers, are engaged tying up the vines and cultivating between? the rows. Another fortnight should see the end Of the 'winter clean-up. Last year was an exceptionally good one for grapegrowing on the farm, aiid a substantial increase in the crop was recorded. The total harvest for 1929 was no less than 30 tons ahead of the previous year. A new area of vineyard,, two acres in extent, has been planted in Vines im : ported from America, France, Spain and Italy, to test their profitable use in New Zealand. Some of the varieties will be in crop during the coming season. Tung Oil Trees. : With the object of ascertaining the possibility of establishing a new industry in New Zealand a number of Tung oil trees are being raised on the farm. The. seed for these trees has been imported from China, and already 1000 plants have been distributed among the parks and domains of the Auckland provinces. These trees, when mature, bear annually a crop of nuts rich in oil, which i.s. abstracted by the ordinary process of crushing. It is proposed to establish a small' plantation of these trees on the farm,, and plentiful supplies should soon; be available. Fat Lamb Section. Next to the vineyard the, raising of fat' lambs for export is the most important branch of the farm's activities, and [ for this purpose an additional 70 acres of land has been reclaimed from the wattle forest during the past two years. Thirty acres of this area is already under grass, 10 under oats and the balance is ready, for the plough. ' The farm is carrying an average of three breeding ewes ito the acre, but in the older paddocks this 'is easily increased to four. This standard is> of course, maintained ,v by judicious topdressing. Lambing results have been splendid this year and mortality low. Mr. Rodda anticipates turning off 550 prime lambs for this season's market; which is a very fine record for the area under grazing.l i |