RURAL MANAWATU

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 63, 15 February 1939, Page 11

RURAL MANAWATU

FARMING THROUGH THE YEARS

(Bv \Y. J. Cpouchek)

Part II

DAIRYING PLAYS ITS PART. Mention has been made of the important part played by grain growing ;n helping the iamiers in the open country to become established. In a literal sense their crops provided the staff of life and in like manner it may be said that the dairy cow was, and has continued to be, the sheet-anchor of landholders in and around Rongotea. Beginning with a few Shorthorn cows and gradually increasing the herds as development of the land proceeded, the district soon became famous as a dairying centre. Sixty years ago there were no cream separators, milking machines, concrete yards or other modern appliances that have long since taken the drudgery out of dairying and made it possible to produce a better article than could be manufactured regardless of the best of car© then bestowed on the work. Neither was there a sure cash market for the butter when it had been made; there was no central factory with its fleet of collecting lorries calling at the gate at regular hours every day and no motor car to take the family to town for a day’s shopping between milking hours.

difficult to drain. This land was famous for the huge quantities of milling flax that grew luxuriantly in tlie rich, wet soil. It would lie interesting to know the tonnage of dressed fibre that came off the area and the number of men who found useful employment during the heyday of flaxmilling in that part oT the county. That enterprise could well supply a complete story of its own, hut that can very conveniently ho left for someone else to ileal with. The flax lias nearly all gone and a comprehensive ' and expensive draining system. now makes it possible to farm the land to advantage. Its present reputation as a cattle grazing area is well known, and places it on a par with the best of the Kopane and Glen Oroua. one beast to the acre country, and that should ho sufficient to emphasise its grass producing qualities. From this rather sketchy description ol the southern end of the county it will have been seen that the land is generally better suited for grazing than for mixed farming. Although there is a greater proportion of sec-ond-class and waste country within its boundaries than is found in other parts of the county, farmers have adapted ■ their methods of management so that the host use is being made of the land in its present condition. While it does not come strictly under the heading of agricultural farming, passing reference to the uses for which the land is employed must include tho important part that poultry keeping pla.vs in country life. No statistics tiro readily available to show tho total poultry population of the county and the ready cash that is made available to thrifty housewives from the farmyard hen, hut, quite apart from tho large numbers of eggs and flesh provided b.v this means for domestic purposes, there must be in tho aggregate a considerable round sum derived from this source, llerc and there throughout the county poultry farms of considerable dimensions have been operating with success for many years. Particularly is this so in the Himatangi and Fox ton districts, where in some instances the by-product of dairying is profitably used as part of tho feeding ration. Where tin’s food is not available the farms are conducted independently so that altogether pou'trvkecping plays ite part, and provides the whole or a portion of the livelihood of quite a considerable number of residents. SCIENCE LENDS ITS AID.

| Until the establishment of the first : factory in 1893 butter-making on the : farm was an arduous undertaking, 1 fraught with many difficulties of which present dairy farmers have little or no | conception. In the olden days the. most I important farm accessories were the i dairy .'Mid a plentiful supply of cool i clear water. The practice then was to set the milk in large pans for twenty - I four hours to enab'e the cream to rise. There might be anything up to twenty of these pans set out on double rows of she'ves round the building. The skimming was clone by hand and the cream placed in earthenware crocks or enamel jars which were stood in a vat of cold water while the cream was ripening or till such times as churning I was necessary, which in the larger ! herds occurred several times a week. Tlie churns wore, of course, operated b.v hand, and wherever possible the work was done in tlie cool of the morning or evening. In summer it was a common difficulty io keep the cream at a tom- | perattirc low enough to ensure that the resultant butter would be hard enough to granulate and set compactly, while at other times the reverse would happen and the bultcr would become so firm that it became almost impossible to turn the beaters in the solid mass during churning. When finished, the manufeatured articlo -would be put up in large pats and stored until such times as the store Cart came round, when it would be bartered for goods. If the farmer was lucky there might be n small cash balance in his favour at tlie end of the month. Spread over the year the product of the dairy, supplemented by the sale of eggs, honey and perhaps n. little small fruit, would cover household expenses. With few exceptions, money needed for farm devclnp- | ment was derived from outside sources such as road-making, draining, fencing or bnshfnlling for others in the neighbourhood who were more favourable placed ftnahcially. So it went on until the farms became self-supporting. One remembers with regret that in the proecos of conversion of the land io the needs of man the ruthless destruction of millions of feet of valuable timber con'd not be avoided. Beyond supplying fencing material and firewood. for which there was little demand, the giants of the forest, were felled and burned, so that in a " few years’ time nothing was left to mark their former existence. To-day, sixty rears afterwards, firewood, except from imported trees, is unprocurable and concrete and iron are replacing timber for fencing on land where so much splendid material grew in abundance. SWAMP RECLAMATION. B.v way of compensation for the unavoidable removal of the nature! covering of the bushlaud, the reclamation of the then worthless swamp.v country on the lower levels by complete and expensive drainage Iras brought into profitable occupation many thousands of acres of what' is now one of the very richest tracts of pasture land in the Dominion. At the time that it was under the ownership of the Downs Estate this partly-drained swampy land, extending from the Taipo Read to beyond Glen Oroua, became a famous fattening ground for bullocks. Old residents relate that mobs of hundreds of prime fat steers “simply rolled off the place.” About 1889' a further subdivision was made of (he property, when larger blocks containing ono thousand or more acres with frontages to Jones Line and the Main Drain Road were disposed of. Tho new owners made further extensions in the drainage system and for a time turned their attention in the main to tho raising of beef cattle and sheep. In due course a dairy factory was built at Glen Oroua and, with few exceptions, all the surrounding country, embracing the alwve-mentinned areas, was gradually stocked with dairy cattle.

In the foregoing chapters tlie progress of agricultural development in the middle and upper part of the Manawatu county has been roughly outlined for the period covering the first twenty years or so of occupation. At about that time the scientists and inventors were perfecting chemical processes and mechanical appliances that were soon to completely revolutionise farming practice and alter the whole outlook of tlie man on tho land in every department of his activities. No hotter illustration of the timely introduction of a change in procedure could he found than that which lias l>ecn exerted in the grain areas by the introduction of the refrigerator and by the mechanical separator and the Babcock tester in the dairying centres. No longer bad the grain grower and the pastoralist to rely solely on the local markets for the disposal of his produce. On the smaller farms continuous cropping on a short rotation had so improverished the soil of its virgin fertility that yields had fallen away to such an extent as to he hardly worth tho outlay of labour and expense of producing them. Added to this, supplies had more than overtaken tlie demand for milling wheat and in consequence the future outlook was anything but promising. The timely discovery of the process of refrigeration soon broadened the usual farm crop rotation and at tho same time created an entirely new interest in sheep. Whereas sheep had previously been valued mainly for wool production, the fact that an oversea market with great possibilities for meat was in prospect directed attention to the value of the carcase as a saleable product as well as for wool. In view of this changed outlook farmers soon interested themselves in improving their flocks and at the same time tried out experiments in breeding in order to find, out the breeds and crosses between breeds that would combine the essential qualities of a good yield of wool and of meat that was acceptable to tlie market. Out of these inquiries emerged tho evolution of the fat Jamb trade which has'placed Now Zealand in tlie van of exporting countries that are catering for that class of business. There is no need To emphasise the present importance of this avenue of wealth as an asset to our national l exchequer except that, in passing, it may he said that throughout the Manawatu county tlie land is particularly well suited for sheep and fat lamb production. This class of stock, however, has not been permitted to dominate farming practice in the county, and mention of sheep at this stage of those notes has been made only for the express purpose of showing the far-rcar,.hing influence that the systematic introduction of sheep had on arable farming. First and most important in this connection was the creation of a more diversified market than hitherto existed which in turn introduced a system of crop rotation which arrested the rapid deterioration of the land thqt was taking place annually. Furthermore, it aroused the man on the land to an appreciation of tho scientific aspects of farming. Whatever private opinions he may have entertained about “book farming” lie was soon to be compelled to abandon former customs and to gradually incorporate new principles. The first revolutionary practice that confronted him was the cultivation of supplementary cfops for sheep feeding. This was before the introduction of artificial manures or the combined seed and manure drill. Sowings of field turnips and rape were broadcast bv hand and not a little sarcasm was directed to those who made tlie first ventures, blit it was hot long before the practice became general. Ithnroved farm machinery soon followed, ns did supornbosphates and Other manures. so that in a short space of time an entirely new order of farm procedure eiiiTio into being. Tt has been mentioned earlier that the possibilities of grain growing were nearly exhausted prior to the more extensive use of sheep; that statement is hardly cor root except as it applied to wheat. There was still a good demand foi oats and oaten sheaf chaff in the towns and in districts which were then unsuitable for cropping. In addition, it was necessary to provide a considerable quantity of grain and chaff for the use of teams employed on the farm.

Tho lower part of the Downs embracing the best of the sandy country and a large proportion of the sand-drift country nearer the old homestead ij.t Himatiangi have since been broqght under the influence of dairying, with success.

During the years that the Downs Estate was undergoing the process of being cut up, the Carnarvon Estate adjoining was also being similarly dealt with, so that in the course of twenty years or so the whole block bad been subdivided and resold in farms of convenient size according to the nature of the land. Other privatelyowned farms in the same neighbourhood which were formerly of considerable dimensions have also contributed to the needs for closer settlement. With the passing of years a great deal has been done to improve the best of the sandy country. Loose drifts have been protected with resistant grasses and other shelter so that if desired tlie land can be ploughed with safety. Below Himatangi to the southern boundary’ of the Mon ton swamp the. problem connected with the breaking in of the saiid-drift -country has been much more difficult. Although a great deal of this area is now being farmed successfully in large blocks it is doubtful whether this class of land will over he suitable for small holdings. Seeing that there lire so many pockets nf what may he termed intermediate to firstclass lnnd, as distinguished from Me poor country, intersected throughout this area it becomes difficult to speak nf the district as a whole without doing an injustice to particular parts. I 1 or instance, along the Foxton-Shnnnon i highway lirtd alohg side roads in the vicinitv there are many really firstc.lass sheep arid dairy faHiik find so oh right through the reclaimed Moutoh swamp land to the outskirts of Shannon and the Whirokino bridge over the Manawntu Biver. For a great many years the greater portion of this vast 'stretch of land remained in an unimproved state because of it being so

CROP ROTATION. Thus it was that a fairly well defined system of crop rotation became the general practice which lasted lor many years until further changes in market requirements made it necessary to make modifications to suit the needs of tho day. Varying according to tlie size of tho farm, the usual cropping course would be to plough out of grass for turnips and swedes for autumn and winter sheep feeding. This crop would be followed by grain, chiefly oats, for threshing or chaffing. The stubble ground would lxi ploughed again in the autumn and allowed to lie fallow till tlie late spring to be deeply ploughed again and sown with swedes or rape. The lust year of the rotation would find the land being put back into pasture during the month of December. In the majority of instances rape would he sown with the grass for lamb fattening in the autumn. As oecassion suited, wheat and barley would find a place in the routine. Every season found a more general use being made of artificial manures, principally superphosphate and kainit, until club-root made its appearance in the root and rape crops. This trouble brought basic slag, which at that time contained a liigh percentage of lime, into general favour, and this fertiliser remained popular for many years. The immediate effect of tho new cropping rotation was tlie arrest ing of the depletion of soil fertility which had been taking place under tho old order. The folding of large numbers of sheep on the fodder crops soon enriched tlie land and restored the yields of grain to greater dimensions than hud been the rule previously, and, what was of the greatest importance, greatly increased the carrying capacity of tiio pastures. About this time it was found that English ryegrass grown in the district was of a superior quality because of its weight per bushel, purity from woods, and high, germinating powers. Very s oon large areas of ryegrass pasture land Were reserved for threshing and “Safidon” rye became well known throughout tlie Dominion. At the height of its popularity during the first ton or fifteen years of the present century anything up to four or five thousand acres of this crop would ho harvested. There wore also grown considerable areas of crested dogstail and Italian ryegrass, but the demand was intermittent as compared with tlie perennial variety. This was at the time when there was a heavy demand for grass seed for bush country that was being broken in and before grass farming, as opposed to a cropping rotation, became tlie practice over a large portion of tho country. Tt will thus have been seen that within a few years the whole outlook of farming in the Alanawatu had been completely changed. Instead of being compelled to roly solely upon the uncertain revenue from grain growing and a few sheep and dairy cows, tlie sources of income were more widely spread. Mixed farming gave greater scope for enterprise so that should there happen to lie a bad season for one crop there would be something else that prospered and kept the ledger balanced. Not only were the prospects of tlie farmer made more secure hv tlie introduction of a wider range of activities, for it was soon to lie seen that the increasing gross revenue from tlie land was being reflected in tho business and industrial life of the community.

(To be Continued.)