FARMING AND NEW ZEALAND’S FUTURE

Manawatu Standard, Volume IV, Issue 221, 19 August 1931, Page 4

FARMING AND NEW ZEALAND’S FUTURE

(Contributed). During the past 20 years or more the trend of the population has been citywards, with the result that to-day we have many unemployed. Apart from the many old farmers who have retired to the city to enjoy a well earned rest there are thousands in early life, who during the last land boom and afterwards sold their farms and retired to the city along with their young families! with not enough capital to permanently retire. The head, of these families together with his sons and frequently his daughters supplemented the family income by taking positions in town. Owing to the present depression thousands of these people find themselves without employment and their hard earned savings'gradually disappearing, and to secure a safe income and prevent their savings from completely disappearing, many of these people are leaving the cities and going back on the land, having discovered meantime that town life is not all a bed of roses. There are also armies of thrifty ambitious tradesmen, artisans, workmen and others who through lack of business or employment find at best they are at a standstill, and in many cases have to use their savings to keep the home fires burning. This being an agricultural and pastoral country the drift from the city to the country has commenced and will continue until the unemployment problem has been solved, which would almost convince one that the present depression is a blessing in idisguise. It must be admitted that

there is sufficient area of fanning land in New Zealand to absorb twice the number of people on the land at the present time. Successful farming like any other successful endeavours requires applied intelligence. Many of our most successful farmers had no previous experience before taking up land, but a careful study of their particular class of fanning and the latest methods pertaining thereto, has crowned their endeavours with success. It is regrettablo that so many are disuaded from taking up farmingthrough a wrong impression being formed, no doubt from reading reports of farmers who have failed to make good. On investigation it will be found that a smaller percentage of farmers has failed than tradesmen and business men or companies. To be a successful farmer to-day doesn’t necessarily mean a large area of land but rather the reverse, as it is found that the smaller areas can be moro extensively farmed and the production increased fourfold' as against the larger area not so intensively farmed, and a great number of farmers owe their failure to taking up too large an area which they haven’t been able to bring into profitable production. The small farmer working the whole of bis farm to the best advantage has succeeded. In times like the present it is to be expected that many, null fail in farming ventures but let us rather form our impression from the vastly greater number who have undoubtedly succeeded and become independent. While the bankrupt farmer’s position is published abroad, one seldom has access to the position of the successful farmer. It is therefore refreshing to be able to report the following authentic case. In 1919 a young married man de-

cided to go farming and all the money ho had was £3OO. Ho purchased a good piece of land on very easy terms without buildings at £2BOO and borrowed the balance of money required to build, fence, stock, etc. The greatest number of cows milked was 26. By good management he has reduced his liability to-day to an amount which represents a total annual outgoing of £B6 a year. The butterfat returns this past season were 70001bs. The total cash receipts from the farm this slump year amount to £398. There is also a credit to .this farmer in a Savings Bank of four figures, all earned on this farm. One must remember there are good and bad years in farming as well as in any other form of human endeavour and one must be guided by the average and not by the worst or best results. During the above farmer s experience he has received as high as 2s Gd and as low as lOd a lb. for his but-ter-fat. Need we ask what are we going to do with our boys