BREAKING IN LAND

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18542, 12 April 1930, Page 9 (Supplement)

BREAKING IN LAND

USE OF MACHINERY. BIG FIELD FOR ENTERPRISE. Mr John Desmond writes in a northern exchange:—There has been some comment in the press recently 1 concerning the purchase by the Go- 1 vernment of improved and partly-im- 1 proved estates; and an opinion has ’ been expressed that the principle is ‘ correct, as the cost of bringing virgin land into production will exceed the 1 price at which partly-improved bush ' land can be purchased. This is entirely wrong, as virgin 1 country capable of being handled by ' power machinery on a well-planned ' basis, can be put into grass at a cost of £5 per acre, fencing included. I > have the figures before me of the cost of ploughing, discing and harrowing 350 acres of new' country; they are certifiefid to be 6s 2d per acre. One sometimes hears the opinion expressed that land cannot be improved and put into grass at a cost that will enable it to be farmed profitably. This sort of talk emanates chiefly from town men; or persons who gave up town life to try farming, believing that anyone could farm land. They generally failed, because this was cuite right in the past, when rich virrln lands were waiting ready to return a harvest under primitive methods of rgriculture. But it is not correct today. The present-day farmer, to succeed must be a specialist in the business of farming. The old attitude toward land gave all land a certain value as a means of livelihood and a place for a home. The old style farmer was a soil robber. Contrary to the laws of nature he took all Trom the lan4 and returned little or nothing, but nature has retaliated, and so w r e have deteriorated land and abandoned farms. Now something has happened to reverse that attitude, so w r e are passing through a process of adjustment. We must think of land not so much as a thing of value in itself, but as a source of value. Age of Mechanical Power. This brings into our range of vision the importance of the man on the land, his ability and the class of farming he is doing. The value of the man and his methods have gone up in our consideration as the land has gone down. Sentiment and adherence to threadbare traditions unquestionably piny a big part in causing a depression in the farming industry. We must cut loose completely from methods that hrve prevailed for generations. The man who knows how—the farmer who recognises that science and the full use of mechanical power, rather than human muscle is an essential development. if he is to continue to profitably use the land and meet competition —is the man we must look to for the best utilisation of our lands. This is an age of mechanical power, there is too much lost motion all along the line in our present methods of handling land. Farming is getting to be 30 per cent, engineering and 20 per cent, farming. The farmer to-day must know more of the sciences on which his industry rests and bring them into constant application. Field for Private Enterprise. The fact that areas of partly improved land are available for purchase at from £5 to £3 per acre, does not by any means imply that their acquisition for settlement purposes would be a good policy. Many of these areas have been badly farmed, the improvements badly planned, the pastures have become infested with grasses of low feeding value, and the soil robbed of its mineral elements by over and injudicious stocking. In cases £5 to £3 per acre may have been spent on the land, but expert investigation would place scarcely half this value on it in many cases, and to bring these places back to production would cost more than breaking in virgin country by modern wellplanned methods. There is undoubtedly a big field for private enterprise to acquire large areas and break them in on modern lines, using power-equipped implements on large scale operations. They would reap a handsome return on their invert;nent. But the Govermr. vit should be doing this, instead of buying private estates. After all. the land in the end is the most solid investment over a period of years; it is the only security that cannot be lost or peri: h.