SHEEP FARMS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15496, 1 January 1914, Page 5

SHEEP FARMS.

HIGH PRICE OF LAND.

EFFECT 'OF DAIRYING.

-iK experienced man, dewing with the above subject in the Pastorullsts' Review, says : —Many sheep farms in the Canterfury province have chnugrd Lands at as high a price as £10 an ace for one-ewe capacity, and where the labour of turnipgrowing is involved. It is a high price, based upon a 100 per cent, lambing, which is usual. After all expenses are provided for nothing much is visible by way of return to the owner. If wool and lamb, fattened on cultivated feed, make, say, 25a, from which comes 10s interest on outlying capi♦<>j, there is as a set-off m this class of idieep-faTfling heavy expenses for cropping, .labour, upkeep, which quickly dissolves 'I he 15<. It seems as ii there is not much in this for the capable type of man such f arming requires, and it leads one to think that the prices often paid for sheep farms -a New Zealand are to a considerable extent influenced by their prospective use for dairying purposes. Relatively £10 an acre for one-ewe country is the equivalent of a full £25 an acre for two-ewe country, and this sounds more like a dairying price. Speaking generally, add taking the Dominion a*, a whole, it may be said that prices ruling for sheep country, where the chief or sole reliance is placed upon pasture, and where an experienced man may hop© to engage himself in a profitable occupation, are, except where access is bad, £4 an acre for one-sheep country, £5 or £6 for one-ewe country, £8 or £9 for one and a-half-ewe country," and £13 to £15 for two-ewe country, and in certain parts £18 10s for two and a-half ewe country of fallen bush land not yet plougbable, and where lambs are sold as stores for about 10s, with lambing of 100 per cent, and over. Where the country is really suitable such prices are paid by experienced men. The sleep farm that has a good proportion of cultivable laud fetches considerably more, but then the mixed farming capabilities of such aud prospective use for dairying enter into consideration, and it may be said to be more or less speculatively held as a sheep farm ultimately destined for dairying. The foregoing prices ere for s'ieep farms of a general average area of up to a thousand or two acres. The large r estates of the better kinds of land are fast disappearing in subdivision. It can hard" vbe said that there is much scope for increased production from sheep in New Zealand. With the development of easy communication to the back country, it is much more likely that in such a wellwatered country, with estate subdivision so active, dairying will to a considerable extent displace sheep. The ' prevailing price of land supports this theory, for the returns from sheep can barely warrant the figures given for many properties. To , be sure there is room for improvement of j sheep flocks which will result in additional wool and mutton output. This will come shout gradually as the now type of fanner, ! evolved in the altered subdividing conditions of New Zealand sheep-farming, gains I greater experience in sheep management, ' but while it ii' coming about dairying will ] extending its influence, and instead of land values remaining at what may for sheep-firming bo regarded as a maximum, they will in many cases probably advance. Although sheep country has gone to a big figure there is with most farms <. great scope for further improvement of • 1)8 kind by* w,.y of fencing, shelter proVision, and more skilful grazing arrangements The paucity df well-sheltered farms in New Zealand is very marked, ami ha the country is comparatively a windy one, tho effects of cold nni' hot wmdj obviously rob the as *oralist of a ■ ar g9 percentage of growth right thrraghr,nt the year By more skilful method;' and lirnrovid labour conditions the flocks "» the Dominion shouH increase a full 50 I*7 it., providing no encroachment of dairyicij ik, urre-l