FARMING IN NEW ZEALAND

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 266, 6 August 1929, Page 11

FARMING IN NEW ZEALAND

Sir, —Should the denunciation of farming conditions in New Zealand, as compared with those in the Homeland by “Agric.” go unchallenged? The present writer is not a farmer, but comes into frequent contact with those who are such. Maxur ot the®* iasncM

have worked under botli the Homeland and New Zealand conditions, and the weight of opinion is all against the opinion of your correspondent. That some farmers, accustomed to a certain stereotyped form of production, would never adapt themselves to a change, will be an evident fact to many. Prejudice therefore from such quarters would be a natural consequence. Practical farmers (not merely labourers), in course of conversation with the writer, have laid emphasis on the comparatively low prices of dairy stock in New Zealand, the tremendous saving.of labour through all the year round outside feeding, to say nothing of the advantages of lighter taxation. The direct question has actually been asked by the writer: “Does the lower price of stock in New Zealand compensate for the higher price of land”? (when making comparisons between the two countries). The reply has invariably been that advantages are with New Zealand. The following, recently published in an Auckland paper, is an encouraging affirmation of what farming in New Zealand on right lines by the right person is capable of showing: — “The practical experience of a city man who turned farmer a few years ago should be encouraging to those who are in doubt as to the monetary returns obtainable from labour on the land in the Auckland district. The man in question, owing to health reasons, had to give up sedentary life in a city office, so he purchased a farm with the moderate amount of capital at his disposal, and had to bear the burden of a substantial mortgage. When he started his farm was only able to carry a herd of 37 cows, which yielded him a sufficient Income to just about cover all costs, including interest. Today he is able to show through the official statement of the local Testing Association that he is now carrying 47 cows, and that this season the herd has yielded a total of 15,3501 b. of butter-fat. Fortyfive of the cows have yielded an average of 3321 b. of fat per head in 278 days, eight of the cows yielding 4001 b., and one cow yielding 4671 b. These figures go to show that the city man was shrewd enough to recognise the value of good stock, though he has never had the capital to buy high-priced animals. The improvement has been effected through carefully weeding out all inferior cows, the selection of calves from his best butterfat yielders; the purchase of young animals of good strain, and the use of artificial fertilisers for top-dressing combined with regular attention to draining and such matters. “The total return from the farm, which is under a hundred acres, this year is £1350, which would show a gross profit of nearly £5OO over working expenses; but much of income is going back into the farm, and its owner is convinced that he can, by judicious expenditure, still further increase its total production and therefore his yearly income. This citybred farmer, who is still comparatively young, has largely reduced the mortgages on his property, besides improving his stock and pasture and adding substantially to his buildings, plant, and implements. The moral to be adduced from this report, the accuracy of which cannot be doubted, is that, if men will work their land and stock intelligently, and live thriftily, there is good money to be made from farming, and that the State ahd our financial institutions should advance the prosperity of New Zealand by encouraging rather than discouraging the settlement of idle country, and the improvement of existing farms by providing capital on reasonable terms for steady and industrious men.” Contrary to what might appear to be the case, the undersigned is a bred and born Englishman.—l am, etc., F. W. Woodville, July 31.