EXPERIMENTAL WORK ON GUM LAND.

Northern Advocate, 1 September 1913, Page 2

EXPERIMENTAL WORK ON GUM LAND.

It is doubtful if any experimental area in the Dominion has greater possibilities before it for practical usefulness, in proportion to the amount of money expended, than the five acres of gum land which the settlers of Albany, a few miles north of Auckland, persuaded the Agricultara' Department to take in hand some eighteen months ago. Every year it is being more clearly proved that the poor gum lands—and they are poor in their virgin state—not only respond to good treatment, but have a power of holding their improved condition to a much greater extent than the light pumice country about which so much has been written. The cardinal principle contained in the old phrase, "a small farm well tilled," is one that is receiving more general recognition and acceptance among those who have taken up this class of country than was formerly the case, and undoubtedly the prosperity of the settlers lies in small holdings and intense cultivation.

A portion of the experimental farm at Albany has been pipe drained, and a number of the plots ploughed up and sown with clover and mustard, which will be turned in during the spring and re-sown with various seeds of grain and forage crops. Mr Rowan, the local officer of the Agricultural Department, who has charge of the area, is having the ground thoroughly worked, and has an interesting , series of experiments in the comparative growth of forage and otherplants to carry out this season.