SUCCESS IN FARMING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20304, 11 July 1929, Page 3

SUCCESS IN FARMING.

AN AMATEUR'S EXPERIENCE

CITY MAN'S INDUSTRY. The practical experience of a city man who turned farmer a few years ago should be encouraging to those who aie in doubt as to the monetary returns obtainable from labour on the land in the Auckland district.

The man in question, owing to lirsa.ltli reasons, had to give up sedeiitaiy life in a city office, so he purchased a farm with the moderate amount of capital at Ins disposal and had to bear the burden u! a substantial mortgage. When he started his farm was only ab! • to carry a herd .of 57 cows, which yielded him a sufficient income to just about, cover all costs, including interest. Today he is able to show (hroticb (he official statement of the local Testing Association that he is now carrying 47 cows, and that this season the herd bus yielded a total of 10,3501b. of butter-fat. Forty-five of the cows have yielded an average of 3321b. of fat per head in 27T) days, eight of the cows yielding 40011'., and one cow yielding 4671b. These figures go to show that the city man was shrewd enough to recognise tin.' value of good stork, though he has never had the capital to buy high-priced animals. The improvement has been effected through carefully weeding out all inferi< r cows, the selection of calves from /Ins best butier-fat yielders; the purchase oi voting animals of good strain, and the use of artificial fertilisers for fop-dress-ing combined with regular attention to draining and such matters. The total return from the farm, which is under a hundred acres, this year i£1350, which would show a gross profit of nearly £SOO over working expenses: but much of income is going back into the farm, and its owner is convinced that he can, by judicious expenditure, still furthei increase its total production and therefore his yearly income. It is satisfactory to know that, this city-bred fanner, who :s still comparatively young, has largely reduced the mortgages on his property besides •.improving his stock and pasture and adding substantially to his buildings, plant, and implements.

The moral to lie adduced from this report, the accuracy of . which cannot . he doubled, is that if men will work their land and stock intelligently, and live thriftily, (hero is good money to he made from fanning, and that the Stale and our financial institutions should advance the prosperity of New Zealand by encouraging rather than discouraging the settlement of idle country, and the improvement of existing farms by providing capital on reasonable. terms' for steady and industrious men.