SUCCESS IN SMALL FARMS

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 223, 17 June 1936, Page 16

SUCCESS IN SMALL FARMS

Diversified Production Policy Necessary

(By

Cultivator.)

When the last Government introduced a small-farm scheme designed with a view to getting more people on to the land, criticism was forthcoming from various corners of the Dominion which in effect proved to be a denunciation of the policy on the grounds that it was impossible for a farmer with a wife and family to take sufficient off an area of about 10 acres to live with reasonable comfort. That was about four years ago, and the criticism has since been effectively answered by results. True, all those who took up these small holdings under the Government’s scheme have not made a success of the venture; but, on the other hand, there are some who turned their opportunity into a successful enterprise. It is not the size of the holdings that counts, so much as the person who is managing the farm. Some of those who availed themselves of the opportunity of taking up one of the small farms tailed horribly. Why? Not because it was a property of only 10 or 15 acres that they were farming, but because they were lacking in a knowledge of what was required and lacked capital to start; in some cases, too, the land that men were asked to settle on was not of a type that would enable a high degree of cultivation. Any man with farming experience behind him, with a sound knowledge of agricultural requirements, enterprise and initiative can make a reasonable living for himself and family on one of these properties provided the land is good and he lias a little capital behind him to give him a good start.