A PLEA FOR GREATER PRODUCTION.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue LXXIV, 29 August 1919, Page 6

A PLEA FOR GREATER PRODUCTION.

At' the Joll Company annual meeting Mr A. C. Johnstone, chairman, i-e----riiindtfd shareholders that the war had ■enormously increased our national •debt-, with the natural consequence that taxes were correspondingly increased. Farmers could pay these'taxes provided the present high prices continued, but should there be a drop, the position may become serious especially m the case of those who have paid high prices for land. For some years past factory *feturns did not indicate a very considerable increase in production, but in the immediate future a determined •effort would have to be made to very Jargely increase production if the country's position was to be made secure To help accomplish this, farmers would have to make better provision for feeding th/Mv stock, in-the autumn, winter, -and spring months Hundreds oi Jatalitios amongst &tock could be traced to want of proper feed. The change of ■ownershjj> of farms tended to deereasa output Oerauise so many formers left no feed on the place- for the incoming •man, and consequently a. season was practically- 'lost. He knew one man who would lease his farm only on condition that the outgoing tenant left ample supplier of feed for the incoming man, who had. of course, to purchase it on Then again, many dairy farmers were not availing themselves of cow testing, as they should do. He .know of one man who increased his output from 3000 to ]0,000 lbs of milk in the season simply because proper testing enabled him to cull out his poor •cows. In another case he knew of a man. farming 170 acres who was not getting as much butter-fat-as a man on SO acres, eimply because ho would not take advantage of the Cow-testing Association and farm to the best advantage. Numbers of cases were on record or men on small holdings ti-king from ••£2O to £25-per acre, whilst on larger farms the returns were sometimes down to .£8 and £10. The high prices ruling •to-day will necessitate the land being held in smaller areas in.order that it ■can he farmed to the best advantage and that brought forth the problem of l>o\v subdivision of the larger areas could best be brought ;ihout. It was evident that to accomplish this successiully a great many more loads were required, but how and by whom those roads were to be' made he could not pretend to offer-an opinion. The arterial loads were practically four ni>k'S apart and the divisional roads two miles ;;nr! many holdings had a frontage of 2H ■chains, w;th a depth of a m ,lo Su«-h farm* could not n« worked to tj'o best advantage, and as a matter of iai-t -the back portions of many of them -,\vi<> hotbeds ot noxious weeds. To subdivide 1o the best, advantage in order that the land may produce its maximum, roads must bo n-afc more than a mile apart. It would have to be done some day, and the sooner the better Ihe day of the 170 to 200-acre farm wts gomo;. Subdivision of the larger areas must come about, and many of our I>est young men were having to go elsewhea* because they could 7iot .get the land they required and wanted in Taranaki. A voice: "And yet ye montyed moil -arc the men who are buying up everything that is for <=aJe.'> ° * "**" & The chairman: That is one thing I «n say. 1 have never speculated in ian<], and I don't intend to. 'What 7 have 1 have - had for a good miny years. (Applause). Why should nuY i)ov.«. who undo-stood dairy fanning conditions in Taranaki, l>e forced to {<o elsewhere for land? This subdivision ■rnusi take place if we are goirif? to kce;> ihoxn here and get the best results thai thiv fir:o land in Taraiiaki i,s capable ».<■