2

C.—s

Clifton. The season was favourable although dry. The crops were, upon the whole, fair. A considerable area of old pasture grass was ploughed with the digger-plough and worked to a fine tilth, and sown in January and February with Western Wolths, with excellent results. The weather being favourable, the growth was rapid, and it has carried a large number of lambs and weaner calves. It should give good feeding for at least another season. This system of cultivation has proved very successful at Clifton, and deserves more attention from our farmers. The weather seriously affected the root crop, the swedes being badly blighted. The rape was fairly free. A trial plot of chou moellier did well, as also did one of tares and beans. A few plots of grasses were sown, but it will be another season before the result can be judged. In April of last year five hundred Corriedale five-year wethers were sent from Teviot and wintered on grass and turnips. They were shorn early in November, and were later disposed of at the Burnside yards at an average of £2 per head. The wool was sold in Dunedin at 30d. per pound. A line of nine hundred two-tooth Corriedale ewes were also sent down, but later in the season. They had some turnips, but mostly grass. They were not shorn until December, and the wool fetched 27id. per pound in Dunedin. The whole line was sold in February at 50s. per head. A few of the stud ewes, together with the stud ewe and ram lambs and the flock ewe and wether lambs, were transferred. All the stock is doing well, and, as there will be a large area of new grass coming on, a considerable number of sheep will be required to feed it down. A line of forty Shorthorn cross twenty-months-old heifers was slaughtered and shipped to London as a trial shipment of " baby beef." The liming is having a most marked effect on the land, clearly showing that lime is what is wanted. The bulk of the property has now been ploughed once, but a large portion has received more cultivation, and the result shows that the more working it receives the better it becomes. Appended are the usual tables. John D. Ritchie, Land Purchase Controller.

Table A.—Number of Properties considered during the Year ended 31st March, 1925.

Table B. —Summary of Estates Acquired up to the 31st March, 1925.

Land Disfcriot. Number. Area of Estates offered. I Acres. Auckland .. .. . •• 15 25.425 Hawke'sBay .. .. .. .. 9 18,442 Taranaki .. .. .. 1 ! 1,000 Wellington .. .. .. .. 3 2,264 Marlborough .. .. •• 1 2,700 Nelson Westland . . .. .. .. 3 981 Canterbury .. .. ■ ■ ■ • 4 8,54-0 Otago .. .. .. ■■ 3 1.874 Southland .. .. ■ ■ • • 1 464 Totals .. .. .. 40 61,690 ♦In addition, areas have also been offered direct to the local Land Purchase Boards.

Land District. ! Number. Area. Purchase-money. Auckland 95 386*488 1,493,957 Hawke'sBay 1 61 301,498 2,292,083 Taranaki 25 27,628 369,818 Wellington .. 143 157,335 2,226,840 Marlborough .. .. 21 223,957 751,635 Nelson .. ■ • • • 14= 48,821 150,473 Westland .. .. . • 2 5,125 8,343 Canterbury .. .. •• 172 447,349 3,444,252 Otago .. • - 72 293,185 1,779,308 Southland 25 90,637 | 457,786 Totals .. .. 630 1,982,023 12,979,495