Pioneer Farmers.

Waikato Times, Volume 120, Issue 20889, 22 August 1939, Page 14

Pioneer Farmers.

Hardships Encountered.

Transformation of Waikato.

Tea-tree and raupo to beautiful green pastures. This Is the transformation which the Waikato has seen in the comparative short space of 50 years. Naturally a pioneer farmer’s memories are tinged with reminiscences of hardship and an old settler of Rotokauri referred to his experience of pioneer days as follows: “Our great difficulty in the Rotokauri district where I was farming was to maintain pasture growth. After a while grass became thinned off and anything in the nature of heavy stocking meant absolute ruination to pastures. A system resembling that used for centuries in England had to be adopted. The general practice was to clear the land, plough, harrow and sow a crop, and then sow down to grass. “Previous to this the land had already been taken up in the early ’seventies by the real pioneers of the district who, after completing the enormous task of ditching and banking some hundreds of acres of country, for an unaccountable reason left their holdings. Whether it was the outcome of the gold rushes, which commenced about that time, or whether the task of establishing farms on those wastes appeared too formidable, I am unable to say, but when we took up the land there were literally miles of carefully constructed drains along the boundary fences. “Development of grasslands was naturally slow, and even after the sward had been established the land was very poor and four or five seasons would see it back in its original condition. The process of ploughing, cropping and returning to grass would have to be commenced once again. Every man had his team in those days, although some of the large estates were opened up by letting contracts for the ploughing.

“I well recall the time when some of the bigger projects were under way 40 teams of horses with double furrow ploughs were engaged on one estate alone. Pay was very low and the plough boys employed on large contracts received ss. a week and keep. There were no unions and no forty-hour week in those days! And yet some of the lads who started in this way are numbered among the most successful farmers in the Waikato to-day. Top-dressing was unknown until years later, when dairying sprang into prominence.

“Of course in those days we had our compensations. If grass was hard to establish there was no difficulty in growing turnips or potatoes. Blights were unknown and quite good results were obtained in the raising of wheat, oats and to some extent barley. Potatoes grew excellently and many a struggling family managed to eke out a bare existence with the humble potato taking pride of place on the dinner table.