STONY GROUND.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 2631, 5 August 1908, Page 3

STONY GROUND.

SOME NOTES ABOUT UPPER OPAKI. (FROM OUR TRAVELLING CORRESPONDENT.)

I; suppose the farmers who occupy the stony-lands of the Upper Opaki take thorn quite as a matter of course ; but the more I see of these boulder-strewn lands ,the more astonished I' am- to' see the grit with which they'are tackled. ; It seems , a remarkablo thing how in the world these'' stony, paddocks are ploughed and got into cultivation.' Groat big bouldors, as. much as a man can lift, are thought .nothing of bythomon who are used to them. Tho wear and tear and breakage" on; ploughs, .discs, and . harrows .dust-bo a cpnsideralfle item. Howevfer, these, "stony farmers", aro by rio means'' '.'stony'' in another sense. They have got tho hang of' this class of land sufficiently- to' lie able to turn off excellent fat stock _ and. grand turnips and rape. ' Besides this/-it. is always healthy, always dry in the heaviest Tain,;'for the water drains , away quickly. To anyono from a district which is clear: land' . these stony paddocks look almost ; worthless. I have often heard even practical men say, "I wouldn't have such land at any price. It's nothing -but a shinglo bed." Of course, they .'havo. nad-.no experience, and. condemn it; but. if one could find out one would probably lbaTn that the man among tho rocks and stones would not in many cases change places with his brother farmer who owns richer but wetter land. There is very -little trouble Vith sheop's feet on. the former, while on the,' latt-fir, and especially this year, it'has -been'constant.: It takes all sprts to mako a world, and nothing more exemplifies the saying than the work,'of the men who-farm well, and profitably on such stony land-as the Upper Opaki. Not 0n1y...d0 roots succeed; but very fine crops of oats are pro-.' dUced on these . lands in normal seasons. Near Matahuri'is,some splendid rich; swamp land, Which grows ;grand crops of rape. It must be: grand cattle-fattening country.