PART-TIME FARMING

Taranaki Daily News, 13 June 1932, Page 12

PART-TIME FARMING

WORKERS IN AUCKLAND CITY. GROWING OF MARKET PRODUCE. The possibilities of a city worker augmenting his weekly wages by the parttime cultivation of land, and' thus helping to tide himself and his family over times of depression, were discussed, says the New Zealand Herald, by the holder of a two-acre section near the city. With, intensive cultivation and hard work, he said, a man could earn £6 a week by selling the produce off two acres, providing times were good. In the past year, with unfavourable prices, he had averaged £3 a week from his property.

Experience in the growing of market produce was necessary to complete success, he stated, and a will to work was essential. . Although in the past .year he had made the tending of his two-acre garden a. full-time occupation, he would De only too happy to secure a position in town at, say, £4 a week, and devote the rest of his time to raising produce. Six hours a day would be ample for the successful exploitation of a two-acre market garden. It might, be necessary, when part-time farming, to restrict one’s efforts to crops requiring the minimum of attention, but this would be no obstacle to the success ? of the venture.

ft was necessary to utilise every incn of soil available and to manure heavily. Shelter also was a necessary adjunct to a market garden area in the Auckland district. In his own case he had a good blaek loam, adequate shelter and the place lay well to the sun. His yearly output from the two acres was 1500 to 2000 cases of tomatoes, 20,000 leeks and from four to six crops of lettuces, varying from 10,000 to 15,000 plants in each crop. In addition a crop of peas ana beans was grown. Hard, work was essential and without it the grower could not hope to succeed. When ne took over the property it was choked with weeds, but the .whole area, with two acres adjoining, was cleared and put into crop in two months with peas, beans, tomatoes and potatoes. He was fortunate in the possession of a small motor tractor but, even with this advantage lacking, a. grower should have no difficulty in borrowing a horse for his ploughing. His own place he ploughed twice a year. It did not pay the market gardener to vary too much the kinds of produce grown, although the state of the markets and disease in crops might dictate on - occasions that this should be done. The ever-present problem was to have a crop ready at a time when the market was short. In this respect it needed time and experience to learn the potentialities of one’s land. The benefits to be derived from, conducting a part-time farm far outweighed the advantages of living in the town. Many of the advantages of town life, indeed, such as electric lighting and water heating, were to be obtained. In addition, life was far healthier lived in the openness of a semi-rural area and ones children had every chance of growing healthy and strong.