SHEEP FARMING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19663, 15 June 1927, Page 18

SHEEP FARMING.

NEW ZEALAND PROSPECTS. BIG SCOPE FOR EXPANSION. INCREASED FLOCKS NEEDED. The great increase, in the number of sheep carried in New South Wales during recent years may be due in ome respects to favourable weather conditions, but this would not have been possible if New Sooth Wales farmers had not been energetic enough to take advantage of the opportunities offered. New Zealand has the opportunity to increase its flocks almost as strikingly as New South Wales, for various authorities have estimated that there is room in the i( pominton for fully 20,000,000 more sheep than is carried at the present time. This increase is made possibte by the improvement of pasture; by more intensive forms of sheep-farming, and by the utilisation of lands at osent lying idle. The first two means are, of course, readily open to the present day sheepfarmer in all parts of the Dominion. He can improve the carrying capacity of his holding by top-dressing existing pastures with suitable fertilisers, and by the laying down of new pastures where the old ones are unsatisfactory. v Value of Phosphatic Manures. Probably no other method can give such quick and sure returns for the lowest expenditure than top-dressing sheep pastures with phosphatic manures. This operation, which has made such a magical change in the character ana yield of dairy (arms, can be applied to a very large proportion of sheep country. Even where the land is gh and steep it is worth the expense of top-dressing, and the experiments now being carried it in this direction suggest that there will be great movement to improve mountainous sheep country in the near future. Unfortunately for New Zealand its greatest area of natural sheep pasture has suffered severely from bad management, due, in most cases, to the tenure under which it is held. About 14,000,000 acres of it are owned by the State and leased to pastoralists on a short lease which, instead of encouraging improvements, actually discourages attempts to increase production. Something has been done during tne recent years to givo the lessees more reasonable agreements, but much more should be done by the State, not only to prevent the deterioration of its own pastoral lands, but to help those who are farming it to increase its productiveness. If these great areas ol native grasses were only brought back to their original stock-carrying capacity there would be an increase of some millions of sheep, but with the introduction of more nutritious grasses and a i extension of manuring there is little doubt but what these pastures could be made to carry more sheep than ev-r they carried in their best days. Gum and Pumice Lands. Apart from the improvement of natural and artificial pastures which would permit a large increase in our flocks there can be taken into account the very areas of land now lying idle in e middle districts and the northern districts of the North Island which could b turned into pasture at a low cost. Actual experience has shown, recently, that the gumlands and pumice lands of the Auckland and Wellington districts can be made tu carry from sheep to er 2 sheep per acre at a cost ranging from £3 to £5 per acre. It would pay the State handsomely to throw open these classes of soil free to anyone who will turn tl >m int< sheep i pasture. Certain types of gumland in the North Auckland are already available at from 12s 6d to £1 an acre, and the State might very well forgo this amount' or insist upon the value being given back in the shape of improvements. Considering the satisfactory . values obtainable for wool and fat lambs it is time that organised efforts were made to encourage the extension of sheep-farming in New Zealand, for although it gives a low return for land use as compared with dairying we have large areas of country suited better for sheep han for anything else, and wherever the country is-suited for something better than sheep, sheep are a good preparation for it.