FAIR DAY'S PLOUGHING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20228, 12 April 1929, Page 13

FAIR DAY'S PLOUGHING.

THE OLD-TIME MATCHES.

A FARMER'S REMINISCENCES.

Half a century's experience of farming in the Papatoetoe district enables Mr. Isaac D. Gray, now retired and living in Epsom, to speak with authority on the question that has recently been raised of how much land can be ploughed in a day. He recalls the old-time ploughing matches in the Papatoetoe and Mangere districts, when it used to be a not uncommon thing for as many as 50 teams to turn out for the various contests.

The conditions required competitors with two horses and a single-furrow plough to plough half an aero in five hours. Doing their most careful work for exhibition competitors required all of the allotted time for their task. Three horses with a double-furrow plough were expected to do an acre in the same time. The last of these picturesque contests was held about 40 years ago on the farm of the late Mr. W. F. Massey at Mangere.

Mr. Gray says an acre in a day of eight hours was considered the standard for a man with two horses and a single-furrow plough. A double-furrow team would do exactly twice as much. Much, of course, depended on the class of ground and the ability of the man and his team, but an acre a day was always considered a fair average. He does not consider that the newer implements of to-day have enabled any more work to be done.