FARMERS’ PROBLEMS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 29 June 1927, Page 9

FARMERS’ PROBLEMS.

INCREASE IN PRODUCTION

PREVENTED BY WORKING COSTS.

The problems which the farmers have to face in the deterioration of the fertility of pasture Lands and the high cost of fertilising in inaccessible hilly districts were outlined in an interesting summary of the position given bv Mr L. T. Danie'J, a member of the Wellington Land Hoard, at the Masterton Rotary Club’s recent luncheon. The speaker expressed the opinion that the demand for more production could not be met by the farmers under the present scale of working costs. For some years, said Mr Dan id 1, the slogan of “more production’’ had been lurried at the .farmer by city orators, vet it was an undoubted fact, leaving values out of the question, that quantity production during the la,St. four years had not increased. The most pressing problems creating this state of affairs were deterioration and depreciation. When deterioration was spoken of nowadays, it was generally understood to be confined to Dio centre of the North Island. Aihnost the entire area was going hack to second growth. Until more scientific methods of production were discovered, that portion of the (>Ollll try must give the production figuires of the Dominion a serious set-back. Fortunately these conditions did not exist in the Wairarapa, which he considered, with Southland, the .soundest agricultural distinct in the Dominion. The farmers in Wairarapa were mainly financial enough to take the lead an experimental! work to the benefit of themselves and others also.

This deterioration, however, was going on slowly, even in Wairarapa, through the failure, but in most cases the inability, of the farmer to return to the soil those essential 1 , constituents which for thirty or more years tho stock grazed thereon had taken f 10111 it. This process applied also to slurp country. Another serious feature wa,s the lessening of the fecundity of the ewes. Many men who had farmed the same land since they felled the bush on it were prepared to vouch for a drop of at least 15 per cent, in sheir lambing percentages. This was not only a personal loss, but a national loss. The loss might, in part, be, ascribed to the ewes having a more strenuous time in the hogget stage, owing to more internal parasites and to the gradual deletion of .soil fertility. Tho answer to most of these problems for the breeder was, doubtless, to be found in top-dressing with fertilisers, but the farmer also had to face the item of depreciation. It was the excessive demands of capital and labour that depreciated the value of farm lands. Every increase in the rate, of interest and the wagesi award had to be.found from the country’s exportable surplus, 95 per cent, of which came from the land. Much of the land at present out of use, asserted the speaker, was in such a position because of the grasping tactics of the financiers and the excessive demands of the agitators who appeared before the Arbitration Court. I,n this connection it was interesting to remember that some of the financial magnates ascribed all the country’® troubles to the high prioe of land. To the .speaker’s mind, it was not the high coot of land, but the high cost of working it. He felt that some patient Mussolini was needed to explain that the real road to success lay in both parties demanding a little less for their sendees. The present method of was. to the farmers’ mind, absolutely unfair. The effect of these varying factors on the average farmer was that his costs had risen inordinately, andi in many cases, especially that of wool, lie was marketing his produce at less than it cost him to produce it. Farmers felt that the hope of the district lay in wool and lamb, yet the Dominion average return for the past two years had been 11.97 d and 12.66 d par lb against an average cost of production ' on a thousand-acre farm of ]4d nor lb.

The solution of the difficulty appealed to lie in a liberal use of fertilisers to increase the productivity of the soil. Fertilisers had given remarkable results on country which was accessible to the top-dresser, but a large part of the North Island was so hi.Fy that the cost of top-dressinig was prohibitive. Payable results were not to be obtained until six hundredweights to the acre had been used, and then the cost made it impossible to the average farmer. The farmers were hopeful, however, that with a persistent use of fertilisers they were going to assist the Dominion to turn the oorner.

Mr Daniel] was accorded a hearty vote of thanks for his interesting outline of the farmers’ problems.