OUR STAPLE INDUSTRIES.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume L, Issue 12766, 22 June 1911, Page 3

OUR STAPLE INDUSTRIES.

RURAL NEW ZEALAND UNDER,

REVIEW

MO. 35

(BY R. J.EAMES)

"PRIME CANTERBURY.''

SOU THAI NEEDS FEEDING

In many nart< cf New Zealand agents i.nd .s 1 ,-...u..i.X>_r;> ;nd others interested in the inflation of land values ]:res?rve a studied, sih-iico upon the need for feeding the .soil. Rut throughout Canterbury, although the average farmer shrinks at Jirst from the expenditure or hard cash, there is a fairly general rc.-ogriition * : that the soil requires nourishment ■ and that artificial manure imparts to'a farm a greater nett earning-power~ capacity. Still .it is not every day that one meets a farmer who makes the satisfied declaration : •'•'! manure my land because the profit, after a manure expenditure, is greater than the profit- would have been if there had been no manuring at all." After a .scientific analysis of soil constituents, certain 'declarations have ■be2ii made to which the fullest publicity* 1 should be given. In an official report, referrin«j; to soil exhaustion, Professor Alexander said: "To put it very plainly, when tho'-pastoralist soils 100 lambs (assuming their average weight to bo • SOlbs) he sells as niuch" nitrogen as he can buy in l^lcu t. dried blood; as much phosphoric: acid as lie can buy in ; scwt. super-phosphate (-JQ per .cwt.), as much potash as there is in lewt. kainit and l.owt< lime For every 6CO gallons of milk the dairy fanner sells there is a !oss to oho farm of nitrogen equal to Hiowt. dritvi blood, phosphoric acid equal to G'bs. superphosphate, potash otjual to 801bs. kainit. and lOlbs lime." It is the business of the analyst to ' speak Avith authority regarding the producing capacity of soil, and a Lincoln College scientist, after examining 26 f.amples of soil, declared that in "comparison with the Rothamstead wheat plot, on which wheat' had been grown continuously for 67 years, "an analysis shows that there is not much margin j to work on in the Canterbury sails." This opinion is not quoted as showing i! marked inferiority in Canterbury soils, for good farmers in other parts of Now Zealand will realise that the judgment plight have.been passed with equal justice upon a number of other territories between' the North Capo and the Bluff. Hut.the recognition of weakness is the first step towards strength und applied agricultural chemistry in Canterbury in restoring the soils which hare suffered impoverishment by continuous cropping sheop-gr^zing and dairying. VALUE OF LAND. . Right through the middle of tht- j South Island there runs a rugged backbone which sends out (mountainous spurs at all points down the Canterbury land district. In common with other parts of New Zealand the valleys 'which occur between the numerous ) finges-are constantly increasing.in productive- capacity. At the same time ihe enormous area under leasehold has not- made anything' like the best conceivable progress. v The barren wastes of the mountainous'regions represent tho .neutral value point, but' as tho laud drops to the hills a sound grazing .•alue is created, which value grows immeasurably greater as the hill's becomo rindulating land and finally drop to those expansive plains which have made the name or the district famous. But beyond -what.has rlready been said with regard to land values, no very helpful idea can be conveyed. To say that land on tho plains may be had from £(i to £G0 pei" ar.re (some lower than Ihe former and some higher-than the latter figure) v ill, however, suggest to prospective buyers ' the necessity for close personal inspection. In Canterbury the selling value of "the farm next door," so to speak, is not' much of a guide. Besides the pastures and the wide variety of crops' above and below ground, there is an abiding faith in tho ultimate success of the fruit industry, the present .area in gardens, orchards and vineyards being, approximately, 8000 acres. The intenser farming made- possible by the water-race .system, and which'developed naturally &nd as n matter of course, has lowered I the price of land, but values throughout Canterbury, as compared with ether parts of Ncav Zealand, cannot be said to be at all oxliorbitant. This comment applies to the territories right down to Timjiru, around which shipping centre- there lie those fine agricultural and grazing area? to which "reference lias already been made. THE DAIRY INDUSTRY. One might suppose that the district which is the greatest wheat centre in Nw Zealand, air! which produces mutton and lamb ivhich commands the highest price on the London market, would be content to rest on these laurels. * But .a glance at the district shows that the dairy cow is every year making her presence more profitably felt. ■J:1k« splendid valleys of the Banks Penii'sula (famous as a nursery for cocksfoot seed) iire constantly being put to fuller use in the production of butterfat, and clvewl-ore, 'throughout the whole land district, a general increase in the industry is observed. This year, for instance, there will probably bo producer! £178,000 worth of butter, not with stand ing that tho season has been the driest on record for many-' years. Had the weather conditions of | other seasons prevailed that total would j have been largely increased. So with ' cheese, of which, this season's make j will possibly return £29,000. Of course j those figures would bo made to appear very small if a comparison were mado with thofo provinces in "which tho dairying industry is the chief or one | oi: tho chief souvees o? wealth. But j standing alone they show what a very "'aluablc; side line Canterbury has in butter fat. By far the greater part of the butter and choose is manufactured undor co-operative management. Of Mio 18(K) tons" or so of butter to Can- ! torbnry's credit this year some 1000 tons wore turned out by the Canter-l.-.'.rv ■Central Gc-operativo Daily Co., which has its hoodfiuartcrs at Addington, and whose skimming stations serve tl'o dairy farmers over a large area of country. The distances operated over have noticeably increased the use of tho homo separator, which makes it practically possible for many out-of-the-way farmers, with areas suitable for the. ec-w, to become factory suppliers and increase ihe output of the province. A number of bigger suppliers .'ire installing machinery, and alto- | Kether there is a general extension of Tho industry—.:in extension which promises to become more marked as time, goes on. But this great middle part r! the South Island will never be regarded as the coimtrv of the Cow. Its traction engines and its ploughs, its Milling threshing machines, itschaffcuttors, and its burst-in granaries must, it poems, remain vitally procrossive with tbe district: but over and above that there is t'm frozen meat industry, which has done so much for the nro-vim-o and. for Nov.- Zealand, the million en-cases of mutton and lamb which have attached to the province its chief p*«--ottiation and commercial sentiment: Pi ime Canterbu ry.