[PUBLISHED BY ARRANGEMENT.] SUBDIVISIONAL SALE OF V RAVENSWOOD " STUD FARM.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 147, 23 June 1915, Page 20

[PUBLISHED BY ARRANGEMENT.] SUBDIVISIONAL SALE OF V RAVENSWOOD " STUD FARM.

t,l& PERSONAL INSPECTION OF THE PROPERTY. SEVENTEEN FARMS OF FERTILE 'MANAWATU.

Messrs. Levin and Co,, Ltd., and Murray, Roberta, and Co., Ltd., joint auctioneers, will sell at Messrs. Harry Palmer and Co's auction rooms at Palxnereton North on Wednesday, 14th July, | the Ravenswood efcud farm, owned by Messrs. Smith Bros., and comprising 938 acres of the most fertile land in the Manawatu. The property has been 'sub- > divided into seventeen farms, ranging in area from 25 to 123 acres in extent, and offers an excellent opportunity to anyone desirous of acquiring farm lands in a prosperous district, the future of which is well assured, and close to the chief centre of the North Island railway service and Palmerston North, which must he admitted to be the most flourishing inland town in New Zealand to-day. These facts are specially mentioned here as whatever price these farms bring at •the auction sale next month there must always be a big prospective value attached to them in the near future for those fortunate enough to secure the property, Owing to -the further progress and general development of the Mana•watu. The writer, whose knowledge of the district covers a period of 30 years, iB convinced that in lees than five years no land anywhere within reasonable distance of Palmerston North will be available at less than double its present selling value, and the Ravenswood- land sale on the 14th of July is an opportunity that should not be missed to acquire fattening, dairy, or cropping land in a district famed for its ideal climatic conditions, and its adaptability to dairy 'and sheep-farming or cropping. c A VISIT OF INSPECTION. So that the public should have some idea of the quality and value of the land to be offered, and a firsthand disinterested description of it, the writer visited Ravenswood Stud Farm ,and thoroughly inspected every section. The homestead is situated exactly six miles from Palmerston North and two miles /ram Linton, and fl'om both places mentioned there are excellent metalled roads. At .Linton, which, of course, is only cv little over a mile from, the nearest part of the property, there is an excellent school, etore, post and telephone office, public hall, railway station, sheep and cattle yards, and goodsheds, and every facility necessary to make a country life worth living, and the envy of the town dweller. ' The property is perfectly level, and yet not too level, resembling at a distance one huge bowling green thickly populated with magnificent stud Romneys and Lincolns, and dairy cows, a touch of .the picturesque being given to it by ■Jj&ndsome clumps of native ■ bush here and there, and other plantations of jnacracapara. pine, and bluegum, affording the stock grand shelter from wintry weather, and the blazing sun in summertime. The nature of the soil is everywhere of a very deep, rich, warm, mealy loam, with a sandy subsoil, and it crumbles to dust on the slightest pressure. Not a semblance to clay being seen anywhere. Lying as it does in the valley, and equal distance between the Tararua Ranges and tlje Manawatu River, it is 'completely sheltered from the highest winds, and, of course, is not ravaged by the river as it doe 6 not abut thereon. The greatest care has been exercised in the subdivision of this fine property, every section has, a frontage to an already existing well-metalled and cared-for country road. The fences are in firstclass condition, and several of the sec tlons are' completely ring-fenced. OnJy in a few cases will it be necessary to „add to the fences to complete trie newboundaries. Everywhere you go over this property there are wonderful evidences of its great fertility. On a little t 'patch containing not an acre in extent Messrs. Smith Bros, obtained no less than 100 sacks of potatoes, and in this connection it is worthy of menf-ion that Jand in the same locality during the pact season yielded 12 tons of potatoes ,to the acre. Average this 'out at. the moderate estimate of, say, £5 per ton, market price, here we have £60 return .from 'each acre, and 'only part of the year is the land used for this purpose. "Ravenswood" was originally owned by the late Mr. W. Coombs, one of the earliest settlers in the district, and has always been carefully^ farmed. No expense was spared in sowing it down in all the best English grasses, this is evident from the /excellent sole of grass there ig there to-day. I contend ' that this lahd is . quite equal to anything in the muchboomed Kairanga, and it is void of the • many disadvantages suffered by Kai- ' a'anga, for instance, it does not flood, ' it never becomes boggy anjl full of crab -boles in the winter, the water does not' ' stand on the Ravenswood land, the soil 5s of a very porus nature, much more so than the Kairanga, and after tlie heaviest deluge little water remains on the surface, and consequently the stock suffers little inconvenience. When the was being inspected it was raining, and had been previously, yet the paddocks could be negotiated, without trouble, and were not in any way sloppy. It is a fact, too, worth relating that the^ original owner, Mr. Coombs, pipedrained the property, and these drains have proved, and are still proving, a ■valuable asset to the land. < Drains run in every direction, covered in, of course, and haying outlets into smali creeks in the various sections, which, by the way, are provided with windmill, creeks, artesian well, or other easy means of, obtaining a good water supply. Water per windmill is obtainable at a depth of -20ft, and on' one paTt of the pro> j>erty there is one of the finest artesian Welle in the district. A portion of the property^ is under the plough, some of the sections have been ploughed, cropped, and i-esown in good seed, which is showing wonderful growth, and there are crops of oats and barley on some of 'the Sections, while others are in grass, and have never yet been iunder the plough. That beautiful stream, the " Kahuterawa, runs through ' the property, 1 and op its banks the milking sheds are established, 100 odd cows are milked by Messrs. Smith Bros., arid after the land sale, sometime about tho ond of July, a clearing sale of the fine dairy herd, which, by the way,' has always maintained the highest test at the local factory, not just because they are good Jersey cows, but because the Ravenswood Stud Farm was properly sown in good rich fattening and butter-fat producing grasses, and the soil is good. Years ago, when Mr. Sam Grear farmed this property, he also always maintained the best test for his cows, and they were not by any means above the ordinary all-breeds ; bo this will give landseekers some idea of the quality and value of Eavenswood land. ' In July, on a date yet to be fixed. Messrs. Smith Bros.' stud Romneys, Lincolns, and the whole of the stocl farm implements, horses, and machinerj will also be disposed of. The date wil. be announced in The Post. At the lane aalej which will be conducted by Messrs Levin and Co M in conjunction with Mur ray, Roberts, and Co., a number of cot tages, all in excellent order, now situatec cm the land will be sold for removal ■where they^ are not already on self-con tamed sections.