INTENSIVE FARMING

Taranaki Daily News, 4 November 1926, Page 7

INTENSIVE FARMING

NEED FOR CONCENTRATION. THE COUNTRY UNDERMANNED. The opinion that New Zealand farms are not employing sufficient labour, and that agricultural development should be more concentrated, was expressed at Henderson on Tuesday by the Hon. 0. J. Hawken, Minister of Agriculture. “I am forced to thg conclusion that we are progressing fairly rapidly in our use of the land,” Mr. Hawken said. “We are now r getting far away from the old sheeprun days, and in the North Island and in parts of the South Island the land is becoming more intensely worked. No other class of farming can compare with fruitgrowing in its intense use of the soil. I believe this will mean the employment of more labour than we imagine to-day. I am one of those who believe the country is undermanned. “For many years past farmers throughout New Zealand have been cutting down their work until they are now doing only what is barely necessitous. There is evidence in orchards right throughout New Zealand that more labour is required. What I have seen to-day is an example of what can be done witli good methods, but I found evidence that there is not sufficient labour used, and unless a farm is kept right up-to-date then it will not pay. “The day of land aggregation is past, and the sooner we concentrate in our development the better. The good land is nearly all taken up, and I am satisfied that concentrated farming days have come. In consequence farmers will have to employ more labour. I know there is any amount of unoccupied land, but unfortunately it is difficult to handle. The Government cannot select its tenants, and as a result we have the greatest difficulty in finding a man to take up the management of land requiring to be broken in, and we are, therefore, bound to have failures.”