LAND DETERIORATION.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XX, Issue 2118, 23 May 1925, Page 5

LAND DETERIORATION.

REPORT OF COMMITTEE.

HEALTHY STOCK COUNTRY.

The long looked for report of the Special Commission set up to enquire into land deterioration in certain parts of the North Island has now been released, and makes interesting reading to the farmer who has had the experience of his land not being capable of carrying the stock it" did in former years.

THREE CLASSES OF COUNTRY

For the purpose of dealing with their subject they divided the country into three classes: Hilly forest country, too steep for ploughing and comprising the greater part of the area; forest country containing a large proportion of ploughable land; and open fern and scrub country, most of which is ploughable. The types of soils were papa, sandstone, friable volcanic loams and in places pure pumice or mixtures of those mentioned. In the Waitomo County there were large outcrops ot limestone and rhyolite. The papa soils were the most fertile, but papa country, where steep, slipped badly. The volcanic loams generally, with reasonable treatment, became profitable soils,. Sandstone country was generally very steep and did not lend itself so well to treatment. Pumice soils were perhaps the poorest, and were difficult to grass, except with special manuriai treatment.. After dealing with the nature of the forest cover the committee said much of the country was covered by a spongy, peaty substance known as pukaku, most evident in wot tawhero country. The forests on the whole contained little milling timber, although here and there some timber had been milled where the access was good.

GROWTH OF FERN AND SCRUB

The deterioration complained of and markedly in evidence, continued the report, consisted largely in a dying-out or in a replacement of the grasses and clovers sown, by various classes of fern, herb anc] scrub growths. The growth of these plants did not necessarily indicate that the land was too poor to grow grass but rather that there was a strong natural tendency for the country to revert back to its natural forest covoi. FENCING AND STOCKING. The committee considered the lactors most potent in . bringing about this deterioration were the following: The wet climatic conditions prevailing, preventing hot burns, primary or secondary, and favouring a very strong and rapid growth of fern, etc. In every shaded place, where the heat of the lire had not jxmetrated around logs, stumps, and in crevices, were myriads oi young lerns, and 1 over the burn in general wineberry, fuchsia, etc., might come up very quickly. Thus right from the offset the grasses and clover had to compete with a strong volunteer growth. The country was insullieiently fenced, so that- controlled -stocking, particularly by cattle, tould not be carried out. The secret of pasture .maintenance and improvement and oil secondary growth control lay in the ability ol the settler to stock the area, heavily for a- short period—to clear it up rapidly and then to spell. This intermittent hard grazing and spelling was not possible unless the farm was adequately fenced. There were cases of injudicious stocking—close and. continuous grazing by sheep, and failure to siiell the country. Crushing with sheep hut added to the deterioration, for, while little damage was done .to the secondary growth, the lihjjart was eaten out of the grasses and these became weaker and weaker. Cattle broke into the secondary growth and owing to (them not being such close grazers as sheep the pasture grasses were not so weakened.

Grasses and clovers noifc wholly adapted to the country had been sown and and fertility depleted. The committee felt that a good deal nf the deterioration in the older pastures was the result of a. gradual reduction in the surface fertility of the soil, brought ah out by close and,-continuous grazing. SETTLERS’ LACK OF CAPITAL.

Indirectly, in the opinion of the committee, the following causes were also to some extent responsible for the deterioration: Boom and. slump periods; high maintenance costs, these being in must cases too higli for the unfmaiit-ial settler to keep up and live ; lack of knowledge of local conditions; high rental values and high unimproved values; difficulty of providing winter feed; lack of formed access ; lack of capital. It was almost universally stated by settlers that lack of capital was responsible for the greater part of their trouble. Cheap money was said to be the crying need of the country. Settlers now realised that more fencing had to bo erecited. that more cattle had to be kept, that more seed had to be sown, and that manure, where possible, had to be applied. The question of raising money for the punch as© of these was the great stumbling block, for in many r instances (the land was already heavily loaded and lending institutions had tightened up considerably. A. good dead of money must yet be spent on the country, and in tho case of badly deteriorated areas there was little inducement given for the investment of private money. Undoubtedly the tightening up of the money market to these settlers had prevented much good work being accomplished. Dealing with (the size of holdings, the eommitee considered that in the case of the unploughable hilly land many of the holdings were too small to enable the settlers to make a reasonable living, and that the same class of land could be improved and worked more economically' in larger holdings, the capital expenditure in the matter of fencing, buildings, etc., being considerably less per acre on larger holdings.

(Bala nee of this report will bo published in otar next issue.)