KORU DISTRICT FARMS

Taranaki Daily News, 10 February 1934, Page 24 (Supplement)

KORU DISTRICT FARMS

MARKED IMPROVEMENT SHOWN. HARD-WORKING SETTLERS. (By “Tainui.”) Among the older settled districts of Taranaki there is probably none in which greater progress has been made during the past few years than in Koru. Situated well up towards the ranges with an outlook towards the sea, the Koru district is to-day a green and fertile district, where formerly gorse and blackberry preponderated. “Fertiliser has done a lot for the district,” remarked an old settler. But he added that unfortunately with the present prices ruling for butterfat they could not procure as much fertiliser as they would like.

Admittedly fertiliser has proved the salvation of the rougher country inland, as it has also of the land nearer the sea-coast, but in the Koru district the industry and hard work of the settlers have also done much in clearing the gorse and blackberry. Indeed, Koru serves as an example of what can be done with these weeds. One settler there a few years ago purchased an area of about 50 acres opposite his own farm. It had been so neglected that gorse and blackberry Had overrun it, being in some patches 12ft. high. In a few years he ■has made a transformation, the gorse and blackberry all having been cleared and the land ploughed and sown down in pasture, which is looking remarkably well and shows no signs of going back to weeds, thanks to the way the farmer looks after them. There is, of course, still some gorse and blackberry about the district, particularly on the roadsides, but the improvement that has been made and is still being made is remarkable. The country is somewhat broken, but that has a certain advantage in that stock can. always find shelter, though it is pleasing to note that many of the settlers are also providing shelter by leaving patches of native bush and growing plantations. That the district is eminently suited to the growth of trees is shown by the progress that the plantations of the forestry company and of the Egmont National Park Board have made in a few years. The fertility of the soil is also evident ■by the manner in which the pastures grow, red clover appearing to do remarkably well. The settlers, of course, are largely dairying, and for winter fodder turn their surplus pasture into hay and ensilage, more of the latter than of the former being made. The wet spell caught some of the settlers with hay out, and in some cases the grass was showing through' the hay before it could be stacked. The' position was taken philosophically, one settler remarking that the extra growth of the pasture caused by the rain would more than compensate for any loss in feeding value of the hay due to the delays in saving. Some of the settlers keep a few sheep. One who has been farming in the district for. a third of a century remarked that but for the cost of fencing they should run more for sheep. Some of the settlers ■have been farming in the district for oyer half a century. Despite the low prices they are still working away cheerfully, and one can only hope that their perseverance will be rewarded by a rise in the price of their primary product, as has been the case with the sheep farmer.