FARMING IN NEW ZEALAND

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume 71, Issue 1, 16 July 1945, Page 11

FARMING IN NEW ZEALAND

Land Development I

By

P. W. SMALLFIELD,

Director of the Fields Division, Wellington.

MANY inquiries are received regarding the prospects of land ■ development in the Dominion, and whether it is feasible for young men with little capital, but willing to work hard and live frugally, to take over unimproved land and develop farms which will ultimately provide a good living. This article traces the history of land development in New Zealand, and outlines the methods used and difficulties encountered in the development of the unimproved land still remaining in the Dominion.

NEW Zealand has now only limited areas of virgin land which are worth development. As might be expected, the early settlers generally secured the best land, and each successive generation of land developers has had to take in hand land of lower quality, .or of apparently lower quality, for advances in the science and practice of farming have since enabled the economic development of land considered worthless by the very early settlers. The areas now undeveloped are generally of . low natural ' fertility, and require both capital and experience for successful conversion from scrub to grass. The present farmlands of the Dominion were originally covered in bush, scrub, tussock, or swamp vegetation. The tussock areas lying in the low-rainfall belt on the east of the. main divide in the South Island covered flat, hilly, and mountainous areas. These tussock grasslands were first used mainly for extensive pastoral farming, and the hilly and mountainous tussock grasslands still constitute one of the Dominion’s main pastoral areas. The plains lands were, however, early developed for cereal production, and later for mixed farming. In the North Island fern and tussock land of the better quality was first developed, and then, when it was found that grass and clover seed would establish in the ashes of a forest fire, the destruction of the natural forests quickly followed. In the last two de-

cades of the nineteenth and first two decades of the twentieth century millions of acres of bush and open fern land were burnt and grassed and utilised for pastoral farming. As further land was required swamps were drained and areas. of lower fertility covered in fern and scrub were ploughed, manured, and grassed.

Now' the remaining virgin lands consist of scrub-covered areas of low natural fertility, which require considerable capital expenditure to convert into farms. The State has always been interested in land settlement and development. In the early days the State made land available to settlers by lease, sale, or grant. In 1892 the State commenced the purchase of large estates for re-settlement in smaller holdings, and in 1894 the State Advances to Settlers Act inaugurated various schemes for lending money to settlers for improving and developing farms. In 1929 the State commenced the actual development of Crown land for farming and the provision of fully-developed farms for selection by settlers. Prior to this the necessary

preliminary work of reading and drainage had often been done by the State, but the settler was expected to develop the land with financial assistance from the State. The practice of the State developing land prior to settlement was necessitated by the lower quality of the remaining areas of unselected Crown lands. Development work is carried out by . the Land Development Branch of the Lands and Survey Department, and large areas have been efficiently developed and opened for settlement in this way. Tussock Grassland Exploitation of natural grassland for cereal production has been the basis of large-scale settlement in most new countries, eg., U.S.A, and Canada. Farm development did not call for much capital, . the settler requiring only sufficient money for financing the cost of a team and implements, a rough house, provisions until harvest, and the necessary deposit on the land. If the first two or three harvests turned out satisfactorily, the settler was in a fair way to becoming a successful farmer. In the early sixties much South Island tussock grassland was taken up for cereal production. Good land could be purchased at £2 to £3 per acre, and a farmer having secured a section of land would often start with very small capital. He would probably get a neighbouring farmer to skim a few acres during the summer while he worked for someone else or built his whare or rough house. In the autumn he would fence the field he intended* to crop and get the person who skimmed the land to put in the crop for him, he in his turn fencing for the man who had the team. Thus the seed wheat, a spade, and a shovel were probably all he required until his first harvest. • Hundreds of farmers started farming in this way in the early days of Canter-

bury. The first houses were mostly built of sods; one in twenty might be cob or wood. These sod houses were plastered inside and out with a mixture of cowdung and clay, and when dry were whitewashed all over and looked clean and tidy. Should the settler’s first harvest turn out well, he might purchase a pair of bullocks and a plough the next autumn and so step by step secure all the implements required on his farm.*

In New Zealand continuous cereal production, which has proved so disastrous in many countries, rapidly gave place to mixed farming, and the introduction of pastures into the crop rotations has maintained soil fertility in the arable farming districts.

Pasture Production

Pastures required for milk production and stock fattening consist of a few species of grasses and clovers, the most important of which are perennial, ryegrass, cocksfoot, and red and white clover. Other species such as browntop, danthonia, crested dogstail, subterranean clover, and Lotus hispidus are included to provide permanent swards under dry and low soil fertility conditions. Moist rich land requires the addition of other species such as meadow . foxtail, timothy, alsyke clover, and Lotus major, and in the warmer districts of the North Island paspalum is included in most pastures. However, the most general pasture type consisting of perennial ryegrass, cocksfoot, and white clover demands high soil fertility, and the seed-bed must .be moist and firm at the time of sowing, with a sufficiently loose surface cover to bury .the small seeds. After establishment there must be an absence of severe competition from other plants. At first sight the forest, fern, and scrub areas did not look particularly inviting from the pasture establishment point of view, but burning of the bush and fern provided the seedbed necessary for suitable grass establishment, and the ■ careful manipulation of livestock gave a fair measure of control of competing plants in the initial stages. For burning does not prevent the return of fern and scrub, and stock management in the crushing out of bracken fern is an important factor in pasture establishment.

Scrub areas vary considerably in their response .to surface sowing. Where the growth is heavy a satisfactory layer of ash can be secured after burning the felled scrub, but the ■ general low fertility of the soil usually results in pasture deterioration, unless the sward is topdressed. Consequently the forest and open fern lands were first developed, and the scrub lands of lower fertility have

been seriously considered for development only during the last 20 years. The remaining areas require cultivation and manuring before grass can be established satisfactorily. Forest The pastures established after burning the forest land had a high initial carrying capacity, and gave the settler an immediate return for his work. As long as the settler had areas of fresh bush to chop he maintained the carrying capacity of his holding, but once his farm was fully developed carrying capacity started to decline, except on the most fertile areas. In wet areas and at high elevations on poor soils fern and scrub invaded the pasture lands; soil erosion, chiefly slip erosion, became a problem and further reduced carrying ■capacity. 1 ' These surface-sown grasslands still constitute one of the main pastoral areas of the Dominion, and although exact figures are not available, they probably account for 11 million acres of the 17J million acres of sown grassland. , The improvement of the sur-face-sown hill-country grazing lands will be very important in the postwar economy of the Dominion. Management methods to control deterioration consist of fencing and crushing second . growth with stock, logging up, cutting manuka, resowing after manuka and bracken and hard fern burns, the ' introduction of clovers, particularly subterranean clover; and topdressing. To be effective topdressing requires the presence of clovers in the pasture, and the in-

troduction of subterranean clover by over-sowing is usually a necessary prerequisite to topdressing. The settler on bush country did not require a great deal of capital to start his farming operations. If he drew a section of 300 to 400 acres in a land ballot, he would probably fell 50 to 100 acres in the first year and complete the conversion of the section from bush to grass in five or six years. Starting with £4OO to £SOO capital (and many started with less) and the bushman’s equipment of tent, saw, axe, and wedges, he would set up his camp, hire a helper, and start cutting the first section\ in the winter. The bush was first underscrubbed and then all tall timber under 3ft. in diameter felled. Two men would clear about 60 acres of bush in 12 weeks, and the bush was left after felling to dry until December or January for burning. Soon after burning, when the. soil had cooled sufficiently, grass and clover seeds were sown in the ashes, usually with turnips and rape. Between felling and burning the settler 'would probably seek contract work on neighbouring farms in clearing or fencing work. After sowing the block was fenced and with a good strike of turnips and rape the area would be stocked with five or six lambs per acre. The lambs, sold fat after shearing, i would probably net 12s. to 13s. for meat and wool, and this return, with the help of contract work, on neighbouring farms, was' sufficient to maintain the settler during the break-ing-in process while he , secured further working capital through the State Advances on the improvements

of grassing and fencing already carried out. The next year the same process would be gone through again: a further area felled and grassed, a fresh batch of lambs fattened, and a further State Advances loan. After five or six years he would have a property of 300 to 400 acres in grass, valued at £8 per acre, with mortgages on the property for a third of the value of the improvements and an annual rent of 4s. to’ ss. for the land. ■ _ - > ' ■

On many areas settlement under these conditions was successful, while on other areas it was disastrous. Where the . soil was poor and the rainfall - high the tendency to revert to second growth was so strong that the pastures could not be maintained. In drier districts the original grasses and clover sown have been replaced by danthonia and fairly stable pastures maintained, and many of these swards are capable of improvement through the introduction of subterranean clover and topdressing. On the easier land as the stumps rotted the land has been cleared, ploughed, and re-sown, and good fattening and milk-producing pastures established. For all practical purposes the conversion of bush to grass has ceased and no longer offers - scope for new settlers. Fern Open fern and tutu land originally occupied large areas in the central and eastern districts of the ' North Island and was early developed for pastoral farming. At first sight bracken fern would appear to be impossible to eradicate; the fronds are unpalatable, and the plants have great root development and grow with'great rapidity. Yet with all its obvious advantages for holding possession of the ground, it possesses four fatal defects that make its control possible. These are the incapacity of the underground stems to develop fronds except in specially-defined places; the inability of the fronds to grow when once broken off; the extreme ease with which the frond may be broken before it expands, or when it is in what is known as the curl stage, and the long dormant season extending from the autumn to the late spring, t The usual method of converting fern land to grass on ploughable areas is first to burn and surface sow a temporary pasture of Italian ryegrass, cocksfoot, and red and white clover; red clover is the powerful plant, and with its strong summer growth . is excellent for crowding out the fern and allowing heavy summer stocking with - cattle for fern crushing. Cattle can be crowded on the area, so that the young fern fronds may be broken

off in the curl stage and the fern crushed out. On the deterioration of the temporary pasture and the disappearance of most of the , fern the land is generally ploughed, sown in swedes, and then to perennial grass following swedes. On unploughable country permanent grass, containing a good proportion of temporary elements, e.g., Italian rye and red clover, is sown after the burning of the fern, and crushing is carried out as for a temporary pasture. There are still considerable areas of open fern and tutu land in parts of the Auckland district, but most of these are on land covered with coarse volcanic ash showers, which render the surface soil dry and difficult 'to grass. Other areas consist of, reverted bush lands, and on country which is ploughable a fresh - burn, which will clear up most of the old logs and stumps, may allow of the economic grassing of this type of reverted country, but the induced fern on this land is much more difficult to crowd out than the bracken on natural fern lands. Scrub Lands The scrub lands now constitute the main areas of virgin land ■ awaiting development. They are situated on the pumice soil areas of the central plateau of the North Island and on gumland podzols of North Auckland. Of low initial fertility, they require

clearing, cultivation, and manuring; before satisfactory pastures can beestablished, and the pastures take a, year or two and require regular topdressing before becoming fully productive. They therefore present a, difficult proposition to men of small, capital, and the usual sequence of. development by individual settlers has; been that the limited capital availableis spent before a productive farm has. been established. There have been,’ of course, numerous exceptions tothis experience, but mainly by settlers who were in a position ,to keep development going by securing contract, road formation or cultivation work.. To overcome the difficulties of converting scrub land to grass the State in 1929 commenced the practice of developing farms on scrub land owned by the Crown prior to settlement! The Land Laws Amendment Act, 1929, gave authority to the Minister of Lands to grass, fence, erect buildings on Crown lands, and farm the land until , ready for settlement. Further authority for land development was given by the Unemployment. Act, 1932, and the Small Farms Act, 1933, and subsequent amendments, and. with the establishment of the Land Development Section of the Landsand Survey Department the general practice is for the State to developscrub lands and to rejuvenate reverted land into productive farms before settlement.

Pumice Land

The pumice lands are situated on the central plateau which forms the main watershed of the North Island. Commencing south of Lake Taupo it stretches across the North Island from the main mountain range on the east to the high elevated marine plain in the west," and extends northwards as far as the Bay of Plenty. Relatively flat over wide areas, the plateau rises here and there into high volcanic cones, flat-topped hills, and serrated ridges. Rhyolite lava flows and large masses of pumice stone form the tableland, and the numerous volcanic cones that occur throughout its extent are built up of rhyolite, andesite, and partly also of basalt. Lake Taupo is a real inland sea, covering as it does an area of 238 square miles: it is 25 miles long from south-west to northeast, and its greatest breadth is about 20 miles; it lies 1,211 ft. above sea level, and is everywhere surrounded by volcanic rocks, which form a high tableland 2,000 to 2,400 ft. above sea level. The Waikato River leaves Lake Taupo at the north-east end, and shapes its course ■ north-east for a distance of about 20 miles, flowing through a broad, terraced valley on the boundary of the Kaingaroa Plain. After its junction with the Waiotapu River the Waikato makes a sharp turn to the west, flows through a mountainous region in a deep gorge, and emerges near Maungatautau in the broad plain of the Middle Waikato Basin.

The Middle Waikato Basin, comprising the Hamilton Basin and the Hauraki Lowland, was one of the earliest places where considerable areas of scrub land were converted into pasture and where the efficiency of phosphatic topdressing was first demonstrated. Settlers first developed the undulating clay and silt loam hills originally covered in fern and tutu, and later the manuka-covered flats consisting of pumice sand and silt from the Central Plateau area. The usual method of development was to cut and burn the scrub, plough and sow a temporary pasture consisting mainly of red clover, follow the temporary pasture with swedes, and then sow to permanent grass. The development of permanent pastures through the practice of topdressing commenced in the eighties, and topdressing and intensive grass farming practices have converted the land into a highly-productive dairying and stock-fattening area.

The open scrub and tussock-clad pumice lands awaiting development in the Central Plateau vary in elevation from 1,000 to I,Booft. Settlement was originally retarded by the occurrence of bush sickness, a deficiency disease of ruminants, but this is now successfully overcome by

the use of cobalt applied with phosphatic topdressing fertilisers. The soils of the pumice area are sandy, and in an unimproved state appear particularly barren and unattractive. Probably no better description of pumice land can be given than the following extract from the evidence of Mr. J. B. Campbell before the Rotorua-Taupo Railway Parliamentary Committee, 1929: The land will do nothing itself. It differs from other land in that it is only the medium by which the human factor and capital can produce revenue, whereas in the case of most other classes of land the land is the main factor and the man and capital the medium. Whatever it turns out to be is in exact proportion to what is put into it. The land itself is not an

asset: it is in fact a liability. Owing to the varying nature of pumice land its development up to a revenue-producing pitch is not a clear-cut job. It is a process in which time plays the largest part: the poorer the land the longer it takes. The more it costs the less revenue it produces and the quicker it depreciates if neglected. When once started the work must be finished if a man is to get his money back or a portion ,of his money back. To half do a job is not better than to leave it untouched.

Pumice land development was greatly assisted from 1929 onwards by three things: the availability of perennial strains of ryegrass through the Department of Agriculture certification scheme; the cure of bush sickness, first by limonite licks and later by cobalt, and the large-scale development schemes of the State. Given good cultivation, a satisfactory seeds mixture, and adequate phosphatic topdressing, quite good permanent pastures suitable for dairying can be established on pumice land. Every operation must be thorough or failure may occur.

Developing Pumice Land

The open pumice land is covered with a tangled mass of manuka and manoao, with tussock on the colder flats. Before ploughing the surface covering should be cut and burnt. In developing pumice country a great saving can be effected in clearing costs if the manuka and manoao scrub are burnt standing two or three years ahead of cultivation. Dense manoao scrub is difficult and costly to clear in its green state, but it carries a fire well and its burnt stubs soon rot.

After clearing and burning the scrub the land should be ploughed, rolled on the furrow, double disced, harrowed, and rolled; then grass and

clover seed sown with 3cwt. of superphosphate. After a further 6cwt. of superphosphate has been applied during the following 12 months the pasture land, provided it is annually topdressed, has a butterfat production of 100 to 1501 b. per acre. The usual grass mixture consists of perennial ryegrass 251 b., 1 cocksfoot 101 b., red clover 21b., and white clover 21b. Pastures may be either spring or autumn sown. Spring sowing takes place from the middle of October to the end of November, and autumn sowing from the beginning of February to about the end of the first week in March; later sowings may be destroyed by early frosts. For the first three years the dominant pasture constituent is red clover, which, if properly controlled, rapidly builds up the surface fertility and

allows of the establishment of highclass ryegrass-cocksfoot-white clover pastures. Grassing appears an easy matter, but there are certain pitfalls, and red clover, instead of building up the pasture, may destroy it; a luxuriant uncontrolled red clover growth will completely smother out ryegrass and white clover. For. the small settler the control of a large area of red clover is not an easy matter. He is usually engaged in dairy farming, and milking cows do not thrive on rank red clover, which rapidly becomes unpalatable and has to be mown and wilted before milking cows do well on it; he has difficulty, too, in harvesting the surplus growth for the whole of the requirements of winter supplementary feeding, for he has not sufficient labour for harvesting a large area, and often makes bad ensilage and worse hay from red clover through attempting too large a harvest ■ programme. The best routine for a settler breaking in pumice land is to sow a limited area in permanent grass, containing 21b. red clover, and in the same year sow an area of swedes; and, after the swedes are drilled, roll, sow 51b. red clover, 51b. cocksfoot,, and . lib. white clover with lcwt. superphosphate, harrow to cover, and roll again. The division of the areas will be somewhat as follows: allow 1| acres of permanent grass for grazing by each milking cow, -J acre for hay and ensilage per cow, and 1 acre of swedes for every five cows. A cow to lj- acres will keep the pastures fairly well controlled, although the mower will have to be used occasionally for trimming. A settler can usually manage the harvesting of i acre per cow and the hay and ensilage saved, together with the swedes, will be sufficient for winter feeding. The temporary pasture sown with the swedes is particularly usefulthe red and white clover and cocksfoot do not interfere with the growth of swedes as ryegrass does, and in the next year after the swedes are eaten off the red clover and cocksfoot plants grow luxuriantly and the produce can be made into ensilage. Delayed cutting does >no harm, or the autumn growth can be kept over for winter feed to be grazed along with next season’s swede crop. After being down in temporary grass for two or three years the land can be ploughed and sown in permanent grass, or ploughed and sown in swedes, and after the swedes are eaten off disced and sown in permanent grass.

Now that bush sickness, can be overcome by the use of cobalt pumice land may be used either for dairying or fat lamb production, and in areas where ragwort is common sheep are best.

Gumlands

The gumland soils occur in patches right through North Auckland; the

areas consist of undulating treeless downs rising occasionally into low hills. The surface soil consists of grey silts and clays, podzolsi.e., acid soils of low fertility formed under conditions of intense leaching. The grey silts, from which most of the kauri gum was dug, show the effects of mature podzolisation. Drainage is bad, and rushes and manuka form the chief part of the natural covering. The clays are drier and are covered in bracken fern and manuka. The gumland soils 'were long neglected for farming. Large areas were set aside as kauri gum reserves, and it was only when gum supplies became exhausted and gum prices were falling that any attention was paid to the farming possibilities of these areas. Also, as long as more fertile land was available, no one bothered about these sterile soils. Early experimenters never anticipated that these areas could be made to grow good ryegrass-paspalum-white clover pastures after being once broken up. Early development experiments aimed at first raising the soil fertility by ploughing in green crops, the use of burnt lime, sub-soiling, and tile drainage—a very expensive programme. The next stage was the use in pasture mixtures of Lotus hispidus, a legume which thrives on a soil below the level of fertility required by white clover. Then came certified perennial ryegrass and white clover, careful cultivation, the heavy application of phosphates and lime, and the demonstration that permanent pastures could be established as the first • stage of development.

The first stage in gumland development is filling in holes and draining wet patches with manuka fascine drains. The land is then ploughed with a short-breasted single-furrow plough, allowed to weather, then harrowed and re-ploughed. The first ploughing is done in the autumn and winter and the second ploughing in the spring. After the second ploughing the land is worked over the summer and sown in February.

The usual grass mixture for gumland consists of 251 b. of certified perennial ryegrass, from 51b. to 81b. of paspalum, 31b. crested dogstail, 21b. red clover and 21b. white clover, and lib.. Lotus major— 381 b. to 411 b. per acre. Cocksfoot and timothy are sometimes used in place of part of the ryegrass or paspalum seeding, but their use is hardly warranted. Most gumland should receive 1 ton of ground limestone before sowing, and the seed should be. sown with 3cwt. of superphosphate or basic slag and again topdressed with 3cwt. to 4cwt. of phosphates four or five months after sowing.

There are still large areas of undeveloped gumland, and the two chief causes that have retarded development have been lack of water and

the occurrence of kauri resin in the surface soil. The lack of water still limits settlement on these areas, and the digging of kauri gum has left the surface in a very rough condition for cultivation : the ground was roughly dug up whenever it was expected that gum existed, and the thin layer of top soil, generally only a couple of inches thick, was buried a foot or more down and deep holes were dug and left unfilled. Swamp Lands ' Swamp lands vary considerably in fertility.. Low-lying areas of alluvial soil of high fertility were originally covered in white pine forest, Phormium tenax, or raupo, depending on the moisture conditions. These swamps when drained and surface sown carry first-class permanent pastures. Peat bogs, on the other hand, are generally of low fertility. Originally covered in rushes, the vegetation changes to manuka and bracken fern when the swamps are drained. Undrained peat is extremely wet, while overdrained peat is extremely dry; once thoroughly drained it does not readily re-wet, but forms a light porous mass that is nearly always fluffy and dry. The essentials in grassing peat land are gradual drainage and consolidation. The initial grassing of raw peat swamps is done with Yorkshire fog and Lotus major, two plants that are admirably suited for pioneer grassing work on raw and unconsolidated peat. With careful drainage, consolidation, liming, and topdressing peat lands can be developed to carry fair pastures, but the usual tendency is to overdrain and dry out the peat. Areas of overdrained peat in manuka are not suitable for development by men of limited capital and experience.

Scrub Land Problems z The chief problem of scrub land development is that the areas are unsuitable for the production of marketable crops; the land must be sown in pasture, heavily topdressed, and utilised for dairying or fat lamb production, and the permanent pastures are not of high productivity immediately after establishment. The settler receives little or no return for his labour until the farm is fully developed. During the war years very little scrub land has been developed, owing to shortage of manpower, fertilisers, and fencing and building, materials. Prior to the war scrub land development costs varied from £lB to £2B per acre for fully-developed dairy farms capable of milking , about 50 cows. Grassing cost £8 to £lO per acre, including the necessary phosphatic topdressing to make the pastures productive; water, shelter, and drainage £3 to £5 per acre; fencing £3 ss. to £5 per acre, and buildings £3 15s. to £8 per acre, depending on the type of land and standard of improvements. At the present time costs for water, fencing, and buildings will be considerably higher, and the economics of scrub land development in the post-war years will depend on the relationship of the above costs to the value of butterfat and lamb. The foregoing descriptions of scrub land development refer generally 'to the areas which are the most difficult to grass. There are small areas of better-class scrub land — of consolidated sand in North Auckland and scrub- and fern-covered hills. in the Bay of Plenty and other districts which can be made productive fairly quickly, but such areas are very limited in extent and exist in areas where other scrub lands of low fertility adjoin them. Experience is required to pick the better land from the poorer. In general, a new settler with limited capital and experience should not attempt scrub land development, and for most the purchase of an improved farm of known production is the best investment. Apprenticeship in farm work is a necessary prerequisite to the management of a farm, and graduation to ownership of a dairy farm through sharemilking offers the best means of accumulating sufficient capital for purchase or for selection as a Crown tenant of an improved farm.

PUMICE LAND DEVELOPMENT

GUMLAND DEVELOPMENT

* “Early Lincoln” —T. W. Adams. Canterbury Agricultural College Magazine, December, 1917.

tCockayne, A. H., “Conversion of Fern Land into Grass.” “N.Z. Journal of Agriculture,” June, 1916: pp. 421-439.