OUR DAIRYING INDUSTRY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18532, 17 October 1923, Page 13

OUR DAIRYING INDUSTRY

THE EASTERN DISTRICTS.

MAKING NEW: FARMS.

fas our special co: No. VII.

The Mamaku Ranges, broad-topped liko & plateau and forest-covered, extending from Horohoro Mountain northward until they merge into the broken hill mass of the Hauraki Peninsula cuts, off the eastern districts of Auckland geographically from the remainder of the province. It is not

realised yet what great possibilities for dairying and all other classes of farming lie only partly developed or undeveloped in this part: of New Zealand. Tho rich flats of the Bay of Plenty and its sunny slopes, destined in the future to become closely settled and highly farmed; the warm coastal lands, stretching from Whangamata to Capo Runaway, together with tho eastern valleys of tho goldfields country, send their supplies of butter and cheese to tho Port of Auckland by coastal steamer or by the East Coast railway. fho vast extent of country lying be- ' tween Rotorua and Taupo, now in its first stages of pioneer settlement and farming, sends its products for export by the Rotorua-Auckland railway, and for mo purpose of carrying out the analogy of milk veins and arteries this railway must be classed as an artery; for, although at the present time it carries only a very small flow, this will surely increase to very large dimensions, for it has several important feeders, and one of tEe most important feeders is the Taupo-Totara Timber Company's railway. _ This lino runs from Putaruru to Mokai. a distance of about 50 miles, and for the greater part of its length runs through easy arable country, where settlement 13 spreading steadily but surely, and dairying extending with settlement. I think that Sew people realise .what vast possibilities there, are for farming, arid particularly for dairying, in this part of the Auckland Province, for few people know that here, as on the eastern side of the Mamaku Ranges lies one of tho great expanses of easily-ploughable, easilyimproved sods found in New Zealand. Putaruru to, Mokal.

The country between . Putaruru and Mokai ha* always appealed to" my imagination since the time I saw it first, in its wilderness stage, nearly 20 -years ago. It is to some extent similar in.character to the district stretching from Rotorua to Tar.po— soils have been derived from the same sources flows of rhyolitic lavas; wind-borne and water-borne pumice; the climate is much the same ; it has. the same abundance of swift, clear rivers and creeks., but in the northern part it lacks the broad, open valleys, the level plains, the wonderful lakes and the broken hill-ranges, which form the main features of its eastern counterpart. From Putaruru to the Waikato River there is one long series of minor undulations, not regular like the waves of the sea, but infinitely varied. There are peaks which rise like islands from the general level, there are flat-topped hills, the remnants of some old plateau; there are broad slopes and rock-crowned ridges, but the curious thing about it is that, except for the isolated outcrops of rocks, it is practically all capable of cultivation.

Dairying has taken hold in this wide district, which but a few years ago was deemed worthless for most kinds of settlement, and, I believe, that dairying will expand here at a rapid rate -wherever proper facilities are given for; the acquisition of land at a low price, because, granted that the land, is available at a low cost, scarcely any other country can compete with it in the quickness and cheapness with which improvements can be made. I can give a practical illustration of this, for soon after I left Rotorua I spent a week-end with a young friend of mine, who is engaged in the work of turning some 1500 acres of this country into farm hind. "". '.'■■ <■:■■.. A Pumice-Land Farm.

The farm in the making which I wish to describe, lies about 16 miles from the nearest town, Putaru.ru, although there is growing up within three miles the embryo village of Tokoroa, noWjrenresented by a store and a cheese factory, a school and a post office. The 1500 acres consists largely of scrub covered or fern covered' undulations rather ; higher here than further' eastward with one peak rising to an elevation of about 1700 ft. : Four or five stream flow across the property v- 5 -'■ ■'• •'- — <% long in shape and runs east and vest. , t J • x.i Li.c v*i.ey of one of these streams lies a new homestead, from which waves of verdant grass seem to roll in every direction- "A few hundred yards down the valky on a terrace is the new milking shed with its milking machinery still bright and shiny. Across the bed: of the creek which is swift and shallow and cool, for it rises direct from springs, less than a mile away has been flung a concrete dam; the dam supplies a wooden water wheel, which drives the milking, plant, and pumps water to a tank set on a knoll 80ft. above the creek level, which supplies water for sluicing the concrete floors in cowshed and yards, water for stock in the various paddocks, and water for the household. • Practically all this work has been done by the settler.. .

Breaking in New Country. v This farm is only three,years old and las 280 acres in grass and cultivation. Not much, you will ysay, for .a. holding of 1500 acres, but practically the bulk of this cultivation, and it has been cultivated three or four times, has been done by one man. This one man not yet fully-re-covered trim tho effects -of poison gas at the war, actually ploughed 100 acres of virgin country, double disced 80 acres, tripod harrowed all the area, worked 100 acres already ploughed, drilled 105 acres in swedes and 30 acres in oats and did a lot of other work as well, besides doing his own cooking and household chores. He is a skilful ploughman, and using a three-horse team of active horses and a double-furrow Oliver plough he can. and does, break up three acres of virgin .land a day, and on land which has previously been cultivated docs up to four acres. This is not exceptional work, it is common enough in this part of New Zealand, and I have known men regularly plough their five acres a day in the light soil districts of Canterbury, using a three-furrow gang plough with a team of four horses. The case with which these light pumiceous and rhyolitic soils can be cultivated plavs a very important part in their utilisation as farm lands, for it naturally affects the cost of their improvement When we hear, even in these days, that it requires! a man and a boy a?jd two powerful horses,to plough.half an acre of some of the < strong English soils, the breaking top of even three acres per day seems a big undertaking; and, of course, it means hard work for both men and teams, though the regular eight hours a day is observed. It is estimated that where the scrub or fern which forms tho native covering of tho land does not require felling by hand, or where fire can be made to do this work, that the cost of putting these lands under temporary pasturo docs not exceed £2. an acre.