STRONG CRITICISM

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 47, Issue 2671, 17 September 1937, Page 5

STRONG CRITICISM

THE HAURAKI PLAINS "AWFUL CONDITIONS” FARMER SPEAKS AT TE AROHA.

Conditions on the Hauraki Plains were severely criticised by a Plains farmer who passed through Te Aroha on Tuesday and his remarks were published in the News, under the caption “Awful Conditions.” “Farmers in the vicinity of Te Aroha do not realise how lucky they are as far as •drainage is concerned,” he declared.

On the Plains, he said, the mud this winter had been the worst for many years. Perpetual rain had waterlogged the fields till there remained only a slight crust of grass over a deep cushion of mud and peat, which in many cases was two and three feet deep. These conditions, declared the informant, extended over miles of dairying country and constituted a severe handicap to early season milk-

ing operations. Plight of Cattle.

“It is pitiful to see the cattle floundering about in this sea of saturated -land,” he declared. “Good dairy cows are not given a chance, for the grass is literally afloat on the morass and half of it is tramped under before it can come away or be of any use as feed.”

Unless the spring rains cease or slacken off to some extent he feared that something would have to be done by way of assisting the farmers or moving the dairy cattle to higher land. Animals Bogged. “Before they can be milked cows have practically to be washed down to remove the mud,” the article continued. “The most recently ‘brought in’ cows suffer the most for their heavy bags are often inflamed and badly strained as the result of perpetual dragging and floundering through mud. Cases of the hapless animals being bogged are almost a daily occurrence, while milking sheds in practically every instance are literally the only firm piece of footing the cows experience. To reach these again, they are forced to wade through a mass of slime and mud which is daily churned up into a semblance of fine soup. “Farmers in the upper Thames Valley may thank theii* good fortunes that they are working land w'hich has been consolidated over many years and which is also served by the largest and most efficient drainage board in the Dominion.”