SETTLING PUMICE LAND.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 135, 9 June 1932, Page 14

SETTLING PUMICE LAND.

TTGAKURTT BLOCKS, ROTORTJA. SHARE MILKERS WANTED. The Department of Agriculture, on behalf of the Lands Department, is calling for applications from experienced married men for the positions of sharemilkers for six farms on the Ngakuru Blocks, Rotorua. There are now 4000 acres grassed on tho Ngakuru Blocks, and development 011 individual sections has proceeded far enough to allow of the establishment of six fully equipped dairy farms. Over 3000 acres of the grassed area were sown in the spring of 1931 and autumn of 1932, and will not be ready for dairy farming until the winter of 1933. In the meantime this recently sown area is being grazed with beef cattle and young dairy stock, with a view to consolidating the pastures, and providing dairy cattle for the following season, when more dairy farms will be established. One section on Ngakuru Block I. has been equipped as a demonstration farm for the settlement. This farm is 225 acres in area, of which 174 acres have been grassed, 90 acres in permanent grass, and 84 in temporary grass, and 17 acres planted in shelter trees. During the 1931-32 season a herd of 55 cows was milked on the farm, and it produced 12,5441b of fat to the end of April, 1932. As 75 per cent of the herd consisted of first calving heifers, the butterfat' production was really very good. Sufficient hay and ensilage were saved to more than allow for the wintering of 85 cows, and a herd of this size will be milked next season.