FARMING IN NEW ZEALAND Cereal Production

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume 74, Issue 4, 15 April 1947, Page 353

FARMING IN NEW ZEALAND Cereal Production

By

R. H. SCOTT,

Field Economist, Rural Development Division, Christchurch.

TOOR a period in the 70’s and 80’s of last century it appeared that large-scale wheat farming might form part of the farming pattern of Canterbury and portions of Otago. This article traces the rise of these bonanza wheat farms and their subsequent decline. ' \

*T'HE small communities of early A settlers in New Zealand were cut ■off from one another by bush and natural barriers of mountain and river; in addition communication with Australia, the nearest overseas neighbour, was infrequent, and the Mother Country was several months away. It was thus inevitable that to live these pioneers had to concern themselves with subsistence farming; they had to produce and process the greater part of their requirements, and it is not surprising that to ensure the supply of their daily bread they made .wheat their principal crop. From the North Auckland mission farms down to John Jones, whaler and farmer, at Waikouaiti, Otago, each small settlement had its wheat crops; in fact up to the 60’s wheat was -grown, in parts where it has never since "been attempted. The first settlers in Canterbury, which was to become the granary of New Zealand, immediately - turned their attention to wheat growing. All through the 1840’s . Mr. Hay, of Pigeon Bay, Banks Peninsula, “grew wheat, cut it with a reaping hook, threshed it with a flail, and ground it at night or on a wet ' day.” The Deans Brothers at Riccarton grew their first grain crops in 1843-44, consisting of 21 acres of wheat, 1 acre of oats, and 21 acres of barley, but as the seed was sown too late the crops were light. However, the following season the wheat crop of 26 acres which followed a crop of potatoes yielded between 60 and 70 bushels an acre. It was after the arrival of the first organised settlers- in Otago and Canterbury in 1848 and 1850 respectively that the area sown in wheat increased rapidly. The fertile plains and rolling,

downlands of Canterbury and Otago required little breaking in. - There .were few natural difficulties to contend with, such as bush ,to fell and large areas of swamp to drain, and the settlers were able immediately to set about the task of cultivating the soil. In the second year of the Canterbury settlement’s history there were 500 acres sown within a short radius of Christchurch, and by 1855 the total wheat area of the country was 10,000 acres. For example, in 1853 Mr. W. G. Brittain, Commissioner of the Canterbury Association’s Lands, gave some details of a crop which he . grew on a piece of land close to the present Barbadoes Street Bridge in Christchurch. “I had 13 acres laid down to wheat. - The land, which was originally covered with tutu, fern,- and grass, had been broken up the previous year and. had borne a first crop partly of wheat and partly potatoes. The land was ploughed about the latter end of March and remained fallow until the last week in May, when, having been first lightly harrowed, it was sown with wheat, broadcast with 2 bushels 'to the acre. The soil being very light, the plough followed the sower and covered the seed to a depth of about 3in. In the spring, when the young wheat was about 2in. above the ground, it was well rolled with , a heavy. horse roller. The crop threshed at .70 bushels to the acre.” Effect of Gold Rushes While the Otago gold rushes of the early 60’s practically brought agricultural farming to a ’ standstill for a time, they had the effect of bringing a valuable addition to the population. In 1860 the European population of New Zealand'was at 80,000; five years later it reached 191,000, the greater

proportion of the increase going to the South Island, because parts of the North Island were hampered in their -development by the insecurity caused by the Maori Wars. The increased population affected the. market for farm produce within New Zealand, and. Canterbury benefited particularly, because it was from here that the flour, meat, and butter were obtained which brought- such high prices on the Otago goldfields. In Dunedin flour rose to £52 a ton, butter to . 2s 6d. a lb., and they were much higher at Tuapeka, on the actual “fields.” It is said that here a pannikin of flour cost ss. The period of stagnation following the gold, rushes ■ was comparatively short lived; the decline- in the wheat acreage in the 60’s quickly recovered and in the 70’s great progress and the rise of the bonanza wheat farms occurred. AREA IN WHEAT, OATS, AND , BARLEY IN CANTERBURY AND OTAGO (To the nearest thousand acres.) YEAR WHEAT OATS BARLEY Acres Acres Acres (thousands) (thousands) (thousands) 1858 ..6 5 .8 1861 ..18 9 " ' 2 1864 ..19 41 .3 1870 ..73 ' 82 22 1875 .. 98 145 13 1880 - .. 248 297 47 1885 .. 247 325 30 1890 .. 294 376 23 < ' * 1895 .. 139 , 312 25 1900 .. 243 347 31 The table shows a large increase in the acreage in cereals in the 80’s.' This was during the first prolonged economic depression in New Zealand, when, as in subsequent depressions, some farmers turned their attention to the production of cash crops , such as cereals and unfortunately, in a number of instances, to mining the soil. . During the depressionof the 1930’s there was a repetition of , this; the wheat. acreage increased . in. spite of low prices because of farmers’ endeavours to maintain their income , to meet relatively-high . fixed charges, and soil mining was again frequently resorted to. -

Bonanza wheat farms, which depended largely on the export of their product, . could not have developed without the extension of the railway system and the development which had taken place .in the machinery to do the workploughs to turn the furrow and machines to facilitate the cutting and threshing of the grain. . There was another factor which had a direct, influence on their rise. Up to the beginning of the 80’s New Zealand depended to a large extent on' one industry, the production of wool, but in 1879 the price for this commodity, which had been as high as 24d. a lb. following the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, fell to 4d. a lb. As a result of this fall and the continued low price, some farmers turned their attention to other sources of income, the production of grain being the major one. The first railway’ line built in New Zealand was completed in 1863 from Christchurch to Ferrymeade, a distance of 5 miles. By 1868 there were 30 miles of line in Canterbury and by 1875 180 miles, which was over 30 per cent, of the total railway mileage of. the country. The main south railway reached to the north bank of the Rangitata River and served a con- . siderable portion of the 70,000-acre wheat area of that. time. New Zealand ' farmers have always been quick to take advantage of any mechanical appliances; sometimes, of course, they have been forced into purchasing the equipment because of "the difficulty of obtaining labour. Mrs. John Deans, sen., in a letter to the Canterbury A. and P. Association in 1882 mentioned the position in the 1850’s. “Owing to , the Australian gold diggings attracting labourers of all classes from New Zealand and elsewhere the first two years after my husband’s death, the late Douglas Graham, manager of Riccarton farm, had great difficulty in securing the harvest of 1855-56, so that the trustees decided on importing a reaping machine. My brother-in-law, Mr. J. D. Deans, on making inquiries in the Old Country as to the best in those days, sent us a ‘Bell’s Improved.’ It was so heavy two horses could push it for only two hours at a time, when they had to be replaced by others.” Sickle and Flail: 1850-1860 Development in the mechanisation of agriculture in Canterbury can be divided' broadly into the -following periods: — 1850-1860 and flail. 1860-1870 —Reaping machines. 1870-1880 Double-furrow ploughs and wire binders. 1880-1890—Grain drills and twine binders.

As Mr. Studholme points out in his book “Te Waimate,” the years 1850 to 1860 can generally be described as the manpower, period, the main, implements being spades, shovels, picks, hoes, sickles, and flails. However, single-furrow ploughs , were fairly common, and by 1860 it is estimated that there were about 250 on the Canterbury Plains. There were also a few reaping machines and horsedriven threshing machines. A favourite plough was the John Barrowman swing plough, which was successful in the first ploughing matches held at Christchurch, and one merchant at Lyttelton in 1855, when notifying clients of the expected arrival of this make, capitalised, on this by stating that their superiority ’ required no comment, as they had taken first prizes at ploughing matches at Christchurch for two years successively. ' . ' - Bullocks were generally used in the ploughs, and the man who could take an even furrow across a field with the old Barrowman hitched to bullocks

was certainly well trained in hand and eye. As the bullocks crawled along chewing their cuds his patience must have been tried, too, all his encouragement and punishment of the beasts doing little to make their pace smarter. The grain was sown broadcast, the sower usually carrying half a bushel in a sack receptacle attached to a frame around the waist. A skilled man could sow 25 acres a day, and some men who sowed on contract have been known to sow as much as 1000 acres in a season; so skilful were the sowers that they could gauge accurately the amount to be sown per acre. By sowing broadcast on well-made furrows and giving one stroke of the harrows the wheat came up in rows ■as straight as < those made today with a drill behind a tractor. ; The cutting of the grain was generally done by sickles and scythes, but in a few cases reapers were. used. The sheaves were tied by hand and the threshing done either by flails or small horse-driven threshing machines, a make used a little at this time being the “Kettle Drum Thresher,” which comprised a small drum revolved by

horses working a capstan.' The horses ran round at a jog trot while the driver stood on the capstan and used his whip to keep the . animals moving at a good pace. . Reaping Machines: 1860-1870 During the decade 1860-1870 full use was made of the single-furrow plough; rollers made of a sizeable log of wood and wooden-framed tine harrows also began ,to be used. In North Canterbury, where there are limestone deposits, a number of rollers were cut from limestone blocks. . Reaping machines were extensively used, and by 1870 there were about 800 at work in Canterbury. A make popular at this time was the Burgess and Kay, and there were some McCormicks. As the crop was cut by the Burgess and Kay machine it fell on to a platform and was raked off in sheaves by a man walking or riding behind. In a heavy crop the work was particularly arduous. The knives frequently blocked, and even in a light crop the machine did not cut well and missed a lot, but in spite of this its introduction was a great advance on the scythe and sickle of the previous decade.

Later in the decade-the Samuelson side delivery appeared. Sheaves, of course, still had to be hand tied, the charge for this usually - being about ,10s. an acre. This period also saw the introduction of the portable steam engine and combine for threshing, one of the first of these plants being imported in 1865 by Messrs. Osborne and Rennie, who worked it at Prebbleton, about eight miles out of Christchurch. They made a charge of 9d. a bushel for threshing, later reducing it to 6d. a bushel. It is rather appropriate that Osborne’s son was the first to introduce a header harvester in 1927. However, threshing was still largely done by horse power, and although there were some mechanical sowers, hand sowing was the rule. Double-furrow Plough and Wire Binder: 1870-1880 Great advances in agricultural mechanisation were made during 18701880, the most outstanding being the introduction of the double-furrow plough drawn by three or four horses. This plough was the foundation-stone of arable farming in New Zealand, for without it men like John Grigg could not have created out of the Longbeach swamp his famous large-scale arable farm. It now became possible with a four-horse ' team to turn over between 3| and 4 acres of land a day. The New ' Zealand double-furrow plough has altered very little in essential details since it was first designed by Mr. Pirie, an Aberdeenshire mechanic, about' 1870. He embodied an en-

tirely new principle by carrying the plough on three wheels, one on the land and two bevelled ones in the angle of the furrow, and by dispensing with both sole and side plates. The absence of sole and side plates lessened friction, lightened draught, and greatly reduced the glazing of the bottom of the furrow and the development of a plough pan. The pitch to the land (which was previously obtained in ploughs through the inclination of share to side plates), was obtained by giving to the land and rearfurrow wheels a slight inclination to the “land.” ' As is sometimes the case, the invention did not prove a boon to the country of origin, and Mr. Pirie’s name is probably forgotten among Scottish farmers. A New Zealand visitor to Scotland in 1878, when writing to a friend in Canterbury, made the following comment. “You will agree that no implements so revolutionised farming in New Zealand as the . twofurrow plough and the large harrows; in fact the capability of one man to do the work of two has had a great deal to do with the advance of agriculture with you, the saving often permitting a fair profit when none would have otherwise existed. Now in Scotland the double-furrow plough is in most instances abandoned and the old single-furrow plough is everywhere to be seen. I have made many inquiries as to the cause of this return to the implement of former days, and am generally told _ that double-furrow ploughs require three horses, and those horses are heavily worked. - A man is here only willing to look after two horses, and he has a lot of carting to do; consequently double-furrow ploughs disarrange the system and, save in exceptional instances, are a questionable advantage.” ' . - . Although Pirie’s native Scotland did not adopt the double-furrow plough,

it became the standard implement in New Zealand, where its combination of strength and easy draught was invaluable in large-scale cultivation work. Double-furrow ploughs and four-horse teams in blocks became the common cultivation unit on arable farms; later the double-furrow walking plough was replaced by the three-furrow riding plough and six-horse team, which remained the dominant power' unit until the late 1920’5. Then the tractor began slowly to replace the horse, but the essential features of the early double-furrow plough are still retained in the modern four-furrow tractor plough. New Zealand owes a debt to Pirie of Kinmundy, who thought out an entirely new principle in ploughs. The first double-furrow ploughs used in this country were English and Scottish ploughs, but some of them proved rather light for New Zealand conditions, and local manufacturers soon turned their hand to the task of plough making. At ploughing matches in. the 70’s local implements began to predominate. Messrs. * Reid and Gray, really an offshoot of a wellknown Scottish plough manufacturer, John Gray and Co., commenced business in Oamaru in 1868 and later in Dunedin,., and about the same time Messrs. P. and D. Duncan commenced in Christchurch. ; The ploughs turned out , by these firms were to become well known throughout both New Zealand and Australia, and their implements have gone even further afield. Even during the past few months agricultural implements from local manufacturers have been sent to countries of Europe and the Far, East to assist in the re-estab-lishment of their agriculture after the war. ; ' ; . Duncans’ made their first singlefurrow plough about 1868 and their double-furrow ploughs took part in ploughing matches in the early. 70’s;

another local maker of both singleand double-furrow ploughs at this time was Keetley, of Kaiapoi. In the 70’s Messrs. Reid and Gray made their first double-furrow ' ploughs, ' modelled on the Scottish plough manufactured by John Gray and Co. < There also began to be used in the field during this decade some Scottish broadcast - sowers, Cambridge rollers, and threshing machines worked by portable engines; some reapers and binders were, used toward, the latter part of the period. The scene was now set for the ' bonanza wheat farms to develop. The acreage of the colony sown in cereals increased rapidly; in 1870-71 it was 78,000, and by 187879 it had reached 265,000 acres. The reapers and binders were the wire binding - type, the first one, a Woods, appearing in 1877. The size of the sheaves was regulated by the operator, and carelessness on his part re-, suited in sheaves of all sizes, making stocking and stacking troublesome. These machines threw the sheaves so far' that if they were operated -close to fences sheaves might be shot into the next paddock. Although an improvement on the reapers, they were not satisfactory, as small pieces of wire invariably got into . the straw after threshing, with disastrous. results to stock feeding on the straw. During the latter part of the decade the itinerant. threshing plant with a portable engine, combine, and elevator also made its appearance... The engine was usually drawn by four to six horses, the combine by four horses, and the elevator by two, these having ' to be supplied by the farmers for whom the threshing was done. ' .

Grain Drills and Twine Binders: 1880-1890 Extended use was made during 1880 to 1890 of the three-furrow plough with the six-horse team, and the spoonfed coulter drill for sowing was also introduced. The first American grain drill, a McSherry, made its appearance in 1877. The wire reaper and binder was replaced by the twine binder and the traction engine was replacing the portable engine. The traction engine drawing the combine and portable whares for the threshing crew was to become a familiar sight on the Canterbury roads. One of these threshing plants could put through 2000 bushels a day . compared with the daily maximum of 200 bushels of the horsedriven thresher. Up to this time wheat : was usually left in stocks for a fortnight and then stacked, where it remained" for at least six weeks until a threshing plant came to the farm. About 1890 the first attempt at threshing direct from the stook was made in the Leeston district. After that stook threshing be-

came common, although all farmers could not take advantage of it because of the time they had to wait until the threshing plant arrived. Today, with the use of the header harvester (there were 916 working in Canterbury during the 1945-46 “season), the pleasing sight of groups of well-made stacks of wheat dotted throughout the graingrowing area has become much less common. The building of these stacks to ensure that the most driving rain would not penetrate them was a source of great pride ,to those skilled in their construction. . ' . ' After the 90’s there were few further major developments in farm machinery used for cereal production until the appearance of the tractor, followed by the tin mill, and - recently the header harvester. 1 BONANZA WHEAT FARMS The demand for cheap bread for the industrial workers of Europe was met

by the exploitation of the stored fertility of the natural grasslands of ~ the New World. Large wheat farms developed in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, and the term “bonanza” farm; applied to them in the United States was later adopted for similar enterprises in New Zealand. Some of the better-known bonanza farms in New Zealand were those of John Grigg of Longbeach, Duncan Cameron of Methven, Studholme Brothers of “Te Waimate,” and the New Zealand and Australian Land Company. John Grigg of Longbeach John Grigg, after selling a farm he inherited from his father in Cornwall, left England at the age of 25 for Aus-

tralia, where, after spending six months, he came on to try his fortune in New Zealand. His first farming venture in the new country was in the Auckland Province, where for a period! he grew potatoes on a large scale for export to Australia, but this proved unremunerative, and he next turned his attention to the supply of hay tothe Army during the Maori Wars and then to sheep farming. His next move was to _ Canterbury,, where in 1864 he purchased Longbeach,a property then comprising 32,000 acres, where at first he ran cattle. Longbeach not only became famous as a large, well-conducted mixed farm, but on it a number of farmers scattered throughout New Zealand served their farm' apprenticeship in the colonies, and many tales have been told by . these men of the magnitude of the task of running this historic property,; which must take pride of place among the agricultural farms of New Zealand. A former Prime Minister, the late William Massey,. laboured on the estate for a time. . When it was taken up Longbeach was a swamp covered with native flax, toi-toi, raupo, and niggerheads, and the area was marked on some early Canterbury maps as a- “valueless bog.” It must have taken a great deal of courage to take up this land, but no doubt Grigg visualised what could be done. Realising that drainage was the first essential, he set about the task in his characteristic manner. He had surveyors determine the levels and then constructed main drains varying in depth from 2ft. to over 10ft. and afterwards installed tile drains.

Thousands of drain pipes were necessary, and to enable the work to be finished satisfactorily. he . erected a brick works on the property in 1887. These works turned out about 1,000,000 drain, pipes for use on nearly 150 miles of drains. The same works also manufactured the bricks for the Longbeach homestead, which was gutted by fire in 1937, but many of the bricks were salvaged and used in building the new homestead. The. architect for the new, home intended to whitewash the brickwork, but the colour and texture of the second-hand bricks was so good that this decision was vetoed. The work of v the , ' Cornish brickmaker brought out by Grigg has thus proved its worth. . v , After the construction of the main drains the land was left in its natural condition for two years, when - clover and grass seed were broadcast. . The area was gradually brought in, but up to 1869, only cattle were run on the property, these being used to consolidate the ground. In that year 5000 sheep were bought, and as the drainage work was 'completed areas were devoted to cropping. In the .

season 1879-1880 about 3000 acres were in grain, which yielded 100,000 bushels, 1400 acres were in mangolds, 300 acres in field peas, and 300 acres were cut for hay. At this period it was not uncommon to see as many as 22 doublefurrow ploughs at work in one huge paddock. While the farm workers were employed at distant parts of the farm, during either , harvest time or ploughing, the men and horses camped on the scene of operations accompanied by the necessary cookhouse. The annual labour bill was then about £BOOO. In 1891-92 there were , 4600 acres in wheat, 2100 acres in oats, and 280 acres in barley. The wheat averaged 37 bushels ah acre and the oats 60 bushels an acre. 1 The cost per acre of producing the wheat was given as follows: — s. d. Ploughing (by contract) .. ... 5 0 Rolling '/. ■ .. x .. ' .. 10 Disc harrowing .. .. .. .. 10 Tine harrowing .. .... .. 9 Drilling .. .... .. ..16 'Seed (1 bushel an acre) .. 3 0 Spring rolling .. .. .. .. 10 Harvesting (contract price) ... .. 14 0 . Threshing with own mill ■: .. .. 5 5 Carriage to port and loss on bags ■. 15 5 £2 7 7 This worked out Is. 3|d. a bushel. Mr. John Brown in his book'“History of Ashburton” gives a description of the position in 1896. By this time the estate had decreased to 14,000 acres, but even then the permanent employees on the farm were between 160 and 170. To provide bread for this number the bakers employed on the property were turning out each week 1000 41b. loaves and the butchers were killing on an average 150 sheep a week. . ’ /. - :. Thirty-three reapers and binders were used, and four threshing mills threshed the grain from 3047 acres of wheat, 1780 acres of oats, 700 acres of barley, and 274 acres of peas. The grain was carted to a shed owned by Mr. Grigg at the Winslow Railway Siding, and it is said that £5OOO barely covered the yearly freight charges to the Railways Department. The carting to the railway was first done by horse-drawn wagons, each wagon taking about 45 four-bushel sacks of grain, but later traction engines were purchased and these with their rake of trucks did the work. One block of 1500 acres of wheat in 1896 was expected to average 40 bushels an acre. Up to 24 reapers and binders have been used in one field, and to ensure that delays as a result of breakdown were few a mechanic remained in the paddock so that any reaper arid binder developing minor faults, could be repaired at once and again take its place in the line.

A large unit of this type in those, times required to be serviced . within its own boundaries, and there were on the property a bakehouse, flourmill, blacksmith’s shop, saddler’s shop, carpenter’s shop, and fellmongery, besides a well-stocked store where the employees could purchase the greater part of their requirements, and in which a Post Office was incorporated. The educational needs of the families were also catered for by a school on the estate, and a church on the . farm looked after their spiritual welfare. \ Although the farm seems to be best known as a bonanza wheat farm, stock raising was not just a sideline, and large flocks were,always, carried. John Grigg played a leading part in the development of the freezing industry, and was a foundation director of the first freezing company to operate in Canterbury. He was also interested in the dairy industry, and the Longbeach Dutch Friesians became well known ' throughout New Zealand. He was the first to import this breed into the country in 1884, on the . recommendation of his son, who, on completing his course at Cambridge University, went to Europe and at an agricultural show at Hamburg saw what he thought to be the . ideal “dual-purpose” cows. Subsequently he purchased the two-year-old third prize winning bull, and later ' from Groningen in North Holland acquired two cows and four heifers. . Difficulty was experienced in getting the animals to New Zealand, as they were not allowed to be landed in England. To overcome the impasse the boat from Antwerp pulled alongside the outward-bound boat to New Zealand in the English Channel ' 1 and there made the transfer. By 1893, 60 cows were milked on the estate, these being in charge of a manager who, with his .wife and two boys, did the milking. The wife at times made up over 7501 b. of butter in a week.

Close to Longbeach, at Flemington, the third dairy factory in the colony began operations in 1882, and when it failed a few years later it was acquired by Mr. Grigg, who after a few years disposed of it to a Mr. Bond. Thus there were few phases of New Zealand farming in which he did not take a prominent part. When, his creative work well done, he died in 1901 and was buried in the Longbeach churchyard, the county of Ashburton perpetuated his memory by erecting in the square of the borough a fine ’ statue, now surrounded by beautiful shrubs. When his son, J. C. N. Grigg, died in 1926, he left £5OO to the Mayor and councillors • of Ashburton in trust for the upkeep of the statue, any surplus income to be devoted toward the provision of an agricultural scholarship or prizes. This is one monument to his memory, but the greatest remains: Longbeach is still one of the finest estates in the Dominion, and still in the hands of a Grigg. Duncan Cameron of Springfield, Me+hven While John Grigg was grappling with the. problem of draining Longbeach, a Scotsman in the same county but on the north side of the Ashburton River and nearer the foothills was creating another large mixed farming unit, but here his . difficulty was to obtain sufficient water. This was Duncan Cameron, an Invernesshire man who arrived in New Zealand in 1864. In 1869 he and Mr. George Gould purchased the Springfield Estate, of 21,000 acres, at Methven, which was originally held from the Crown as a grazing run by Messrs. Hill and Bray. The partnership continued until Mr. Gould’s . death in 1889, and in the following year Cameron bought i Gould’s share from the trustees for £65,000. The area was particularly dry, and in the 70’s Cameron set about

the task of bringing water on to the farm, first by constructing a main drain 13 miles in length with its intake at the upper end of the plains, and by 1880 he had 40 miles of races through the area. He was told by some that it would be impossible to get water to. run the ■ long distances along the* shingly courses, but he carried on with the work and confounded his critics. Like his .contemporary'at Lqngbeach,’ his yearly programme was' a large one, ' about 4000 acres being 'in grain crops, and it is said that in 1894 he had 5500 acres in wheat. ' - To enable the great amount of cultivation'- work to be done the. teamsters did not all live at the homestead; the main stables were there, but there were other outlying camps, one near Methven and two at other points, where the teams were stabled and the teamsters lived. In the heyday of wheat growing at Springfield 35 reapers and binders were at work, and a pho- * tograph in the A. and P. Association rooms at Ashburton shows 23 working in one field. With such good land well farmed, yields up to 60 bushels an acre were common. There were about 100 regular employees on the property and during harvest time this number was doubled.

To provide storage for- the large quantity of grain grown a grain store capable of holding 90,000 bushels was erected at the Lyndhurst Railway Siding; this shed is now owned by one of the stock and station companies. Springfield also carried a large number of sheep, and toward the- latter part of . Cameron’s regime the flock numbered about 15,000. Cameron died in 1908 and, as befitted a. Highland gentleman, he was laid to. rest at Methven to a lament played by pipers. Studholmes of Te Waimate In South Canterbury, Te Waimate, although not so well known for its cropping activities, devoted considerable areas to cereal production. The property taken up in 1854 by Studholme Brothers was added to until in the early 80’s it comprised 46,000 acres of freehold and 20,000 acres of leasehold, and carried 82,000 ’ sheep, 2500 cattle, and 350 horses. ' It was during this period that about 4000 acres a year were used for cropping and up to 300 men were employed at harvest time. It is said that in 1883 in'the Willowbridge section of the holding (now well known as a potatogrowing area) there was one field of 3500 acres in wheat and another of 1200 acres in oats, and in one season 175,000 bushels of wheat were . grown,

most of it being shipped to England in two sailing vessels. Te Waimate included some very rich river silt and yields obtained were particularly . good. One crop of 250 acres of wheat is recorded as having yielded a little over 60 bushels an acre, and a small area of 13 acres averaged 110 bushels an acre. This land today yields potatoes at an average of 12 tons an acre. N.Z. and Australian Land Co. The New Zealand and Australian Land Company is best known for the part some of its officers played in the development of the New Zealand frozen meat trade, but on some of its holdings in Canterbury it was an ex-

tensive cereal producer. The holdings in Canterbury and North Otago were as follows: Freehold Leasehold Acres Acres Acton (near Rakaia) .. 15,162 2,520 Levels (near Timaru) .. 60,233 11,605 Pareora (south of Timaru) 17,413 Hakataramea .. .. 24,327 Ardgowan (near Oamaru) 4,480 Totara (near Oamaru) . . 10,613 In the 80’s on Acton, Pareora, Totara, and Edendale the total annual cropping programme-was about 5500 acres of wheat, 4500 acres of oats, and 800 acres of barley. Crops were frequently grown in ; paddocks of ; 400 acres, and usually about 12 reapers and binders . worked in the one field. The average yields at Pareora and Totara were about 60 bushels an acre and at Acton 25 bushels. By the 90’s the company had sold some of its land and Acton by this time was reduced to 8000 acres, of which 2000 acres were usually under wheat and oats and 800 under rape and turnips, etc.

As it was a commercial undertaking, . the company kept detailed accounting records, and their figures on the cost of producing wheat are interesting, though,' on existing costing knowledge, , they leave much to be desired. In. 1889 the expenses shown to produce 34,644 bushels from 1283 acres at Pareora were as follows: ’ 1 £ s. d. Cost of ploughing, seed pickling, v . . sowing, harrowing, harvesting, ' . stacking, and thatching .. .. 1,824 16 10 Half cost of breaking of lea .. 178 10 0 Repairs to implements .. .. .. 140 5 5 Genera) outlay, including cost of supervision .. .. .. .. 223 3 8 Insurance .. .. 60 19.6 Cost of threshing 381 11 8 Carting coal 1 10 .5 Sundries, twine, etc 3 16 9 Actual cost of production £2,814 14 3 Cost of delivery and cartage £l5O 15 11 Loading into railway trucks and receiving into store .. .. 25 11 5 Grading 1 14 7 - l7B 1 11 £2,992 16 2 The cost worked out at Is. B|d. a bushel and the" price received was 4s. a bushel. The company was a pioneer in many directions. The manager of Acton in the 90’s, a Mr. Allen,, was a keen advocate of irrigation, and constructed water races through the property, taking the water from the Rakaia River. The following are extracts from a report on the : results obtained: “From 1894 to 1896, 9000 lambs per annum were sent to market fat, realising 10s. 6d. each. It was estimated that at least one-half of these would have been sold as stores at probably ss. per head had it not been for the extra growth of grass and clover, the result of irrigation. The clover paddocks. which had been watered regularly for three years were, still vigorous and yielded heavy cuttings, while those which could not be watered died out after two years. In January, 1898, 25 acres of wheat were watered; the result was a yield of 14 bushels against 7 bushels on the unwatered section.” There were other examples of largescale cereal-producing properties, such as Menlove, of Windsor Park, Oamaru, but those quoted give - some idea of properties which produced the bulk of the wheat during the two. decades that it assumed such importance in New Zealand’s farming history. Family Farms The magnitude of these bonanza farms rather overshadows the efforts of farmers who were carving out for themselves on the plains of Canterbury and Otago the smaller . units which were to become of considerable importance after the 90’s. Though every farmer could not operate on the

scale of a Grigg or a Cameron, these men on the smaller units were like their large-scale contemporaries, hardy and resourceful pioneers; their smallscale cropping activities were able to exist side by side with those of the “wheat barons.” In the 60’s the periphery of settlement around Christchurch and Timaru was being pushed out, and a number of men took up small areas of land around Kaiapoi, Rangiora, and Lincoln; the forbears of some of the present families in the Ellesmere County —-the Brooks, Cunninghams, Coes, and Inwoods — commencing in a small way at this time. There was a Morris at Waikuku and a Wornell at Leithfield in .1859, and a little later John Stevenson had taken up an area of the Flaxton swamp. In South Canterbury the smallscale farmer was beginning to play his part. It was estimated that by 1867 about 36,000 bushels of wheat were grown in the Geraldine district and 15,000 bushels around Pleasant Point, and about the same period it was stated that the area sown in wheat around Temuka was so large that there was little prospect of onetenth of it being consumed in the district.

It is interesting to see how some of these men got a start in Canterbury. Having secured his section of land, the settler usually had little capital left and would then endeavour to get someone with a plough to skim some of his land. He would probably get the same person to put in his crop, returning payment by working for/the other man. For the first season, seed wheat, a spade, and a shovel comprised the complete working capital of some .of these men. If the harvest turned out well, the settler might next purchase a pair of bullocks and a plough, and so step by step get all the implements necessary. At this period a complete - outfit consisted of two single-furrow ploughs, a pair of wooden harrows with, iron teeth, a wooden roller, a Burgess and Kay reaping machine, a hand chaffcutter, a horse-driven threshing machine, and spades, shovels, and a scythe. '' These early farms ' were . scattered and were often surrounded by open, tussock-covered plain. There are records of one such farm, which now forms part of the Lincoln' College farm, the wheat crops on which in 1863 were partly surrounded by a sea of waving tussock, and it would have

been possible to ride out from it across the plains to the foothills without meeting one fence. / , . Living: conditions were primitive and were particularly hard on the pioneer women, loneliness being one of the greatest hardships. The first houses were invariably built of sod and plastered inside' with a mixture of dung and clay which was whitewashed when dry.. On. the plains lack of,water and fuel was frequently a real problem. Some, women had only straw for fuel, and water was so precious that _it served many purposes before it was considered to be too polluted; cases have been quoted where it was used first for the milk cans and last for the baby. x An old Otago colonist writing to the “Country Journal” in -1889 described the method by which some Otago settlers started their farming ventures: “The resources, of the settlers were . frequently exhausted by ' the purchase of their land, probably a 50acre section at £2 per acre. The purchaser would start on foot to his selection with a swag of tools on his back, to which, on passing the last older settler, would be added the additional burden of a kit of seed potatoes and some rations. With these he would camp down on his lowly home and would work hard for long hours on very scanty fare and in very poor quarters to hurry in a patch of . potatoes and to make a pig-proof fence around it. He would then go back to the more settled districts, where he would seek employment until his little crop of potatoes was grown, when he would return with ' a heavier load of rations; this, time he would put in a larger crop and build a whare so that the next season he might have the joy of conveying his family to the scene of his future expectations. The first year was one of struggling and contriving; the second an industrious family would grow wheat which made their bread, they would grow enough potatoes and other vegetables for home use, and would raise poultry and perhaps get a cow; the bush would furnish pigeons and the river eels, which, with an occasional pig, would help out the table. The third year they generally contrived to get up a better house, still of bush stuff, for in those times there was no sawn timber.”

Wheat Exports and Imports There was a fairly considerable export of grain in the 'lBso’s, but this ceased during the gold rushes in the 60’s, when it was necessary to import considerable quantities to help feed the increased population. In 1866 nearly 1,400,000 bushels were brought in. Exports revived again in 1867 and increased steadily until 1883, when approximately 4,000,000 bushels were sent

•out. This was the period of the largescale wheat farms. With .the advent of refrigeration in 1882 - and the resulting increased production of frozen lamb and dairy products, . grain exports declined, except Tor some temporary revivals like that •during the Boer War, when quantities were exported to South Africa. . By 1913, when insufficient wheat was grown to meet the needs of the increasing population, importation again began and has continued until the present day. The accompanying graph of net imports and exports of wheat shows clearly the history of the industry in New Zealand. Fertilisers Although the dangers of continuous cropping were early recognised, it was not until the development of the frozen meat trade that rotation of cereals, fodder crops, and pastures became really profitable. Mr. W. E. Ivey at the opening of the ■School of Agriculture (later the Canterbury Agricultural College) at Lincoln in 1880 said, “The agriculture of this colony is in a transition state; the army of ‘strippers’ is gradually spreading over the country further and further from the . centres of population and ‘ shipping ports, leaving , behind them lands which will in the future want farming and not ‘cropping’ ifthe colony is to carry its existing agricultural population. - and continue its grain export trade. So long as land will on mere ploughing and sowing grow grain in paying quantities, any man with an amount of money to pay his way for a few months can ‘strip’ the grain which a virgin soil and a

fine climate combine to produce for him. He need not have more than the crudest, if any, idea as to why crops grow or how they feed. But the man who succeeds the ‘stripper’ in the occupation of the land must be a man of knowledge, of observation, and of experience. It is men of this class that form the backbone of a successful agricultural community, and it is to the problems of the producing men of this class -that our endeavours should be directed. ...” . Ivey immediately interested himself in developing the use of fertilisers. Previously farmers . had used small quantities of local bonedust and some imported rock phosphate and Peruvian guano. Ivey introduced superphosphate to Canterbury in 1881, importing' his own supplies of Lawe’s and Odam’s superphosphate at a cost of £9 10s. a' ton. - , ~ lie laid out numerous trials to show the advantage of using it, and from the experience gained he was able to prophesy a big future for superphosphate. Probably he would have been amazed if he could have foreseen that in 194041 the country was to use 600,000 tons of superphosphate, and that even this supply was inadequate to meet the demand. Another keen advocate of the use of fertilisers was George Gray, who was first demonstrator, in . chemistry at Canterbury College and later chemist at the School of Agriculture, Lincoln. He lost no opportunity of impressing farmers with the need for maintaining the fertility of their, soils through a

rational rotation of crops and the use of fertilisers and lime. The “Country Journal” was always to the fore in endeavouring to further the use of fertilisers, and when a chemical manure works was started at Belfast in 1882 this journal made the following comment: “The chemical manure works started at Belfast are of considerable interest from the agricultural point of view. Our future progress in agriculture depends on the facilities afforded for obtaining manure with which to restore to our. soils the elements .of plant foods .which . are now being removed from them by cropping, and it is gratifying to know that we have already in our. midst the means by which the restoration can be . effected, since it will'tend to hold in check the exhaustion to which our soils are liable if we continue to follow in the steps of other new countries such as America and Australia.” In 1896 Bayne, Director of the Canterbury Agricultural College, advised sowing Jcwt. of superphosphate with wheat and topdressing with Jcwt. of nitrate of soda when the crop was 6in. high, and his successor, Lowrie, in 1903 introduced as a regular practice the sowing of - superphosphate with wheat. To these men must ,go a part of the credit for the pioneer work in the use of fertilisers. Milling Man grows wheat to produce flour, and the picture is thus incomplete without some reference to the de-, velopment of milling in the wheatgrowing areas of New Zealand.

The first settlers had small hand grinding mills, but this household task soon passed to commercial enterprise. Hay recorded that in the 40’s William Webb erected at Okains Bay, Banks Peninsula, a small windmill for grinding wheat. The mill was a steel hand mill, the grinding being done by two steel cones almost fitting into each other, and with a good wind three bags a day could be ground. - The first commercial mill in Canterbury was opened in 1853 by Mr. D. Inwood, who charged Is. a bushel for grinding. By the 60’s there were a number of mills in both islands; there were four on the Wanganui River, and, at practically, the same time, seven on the Avon in Christchurch. By the 90’s they were scattered throughout the wheat-growing area in Canterbury, and in the Ellesmere County alone there were four within a radius of six miles of the county centre of Leeston. Most of these mills were situated on streams, water being the motive power, but a few were driven by wind; one of this type operated in the 50’s in. Antigua Street, Christchurch, then known as Windmill Road, but it was later bought by a Mr. Leith and shifted to Leithfield, North Canterbury, where it operated until wrecked by a nor’ -west gale in 1885; this mill worked two pairs of French millstones 4ft. in diameter. Some of the parts were subsequently used in a mill at Amberley.

With improved means of transport, milling gradually became centralised in the cities and boroughs. In 1893 there were 22 mills operating in- the country districts of Canterbury; today there are only four. In the early mills the grain was ground between two stones which were usually about 3 to-4ft. in diameter and about Ift. thick. Grooves were cut in the working faces so that when wheat was fed through a hole in the middle and the upper stone was revolved the . flour and bran trickled out at the circumference. The fate of some of these stones is both interesting and varied. Some have found a resting place with the Wheat Research Institute in Christchurch, one reposes as a doorstep to a country church near the same city,’ and another forms part of the paving of a pig sty housing pedigree pigs. About 50 years ago the stones gave way to the roller process of flourmilling ,in which the grain is broken down by two steel rollers revolving in opposite directions. , The miller is looked upon traditionally as a dusty and jolly fellow; sometimes, however, he is of a serious turn of mind and fond of the arts, as is demonstrated by the country miller in Canterbury who devoted his spare time to making and erecting in part of

his mill a pipe organ. Perhaps some day, above the noise of the machinery of this mill, there may be heard coming forth the resonant notes of the organ! Decline of Large-scale Wheat Farms The first shipment of frozen mutton from New Zealand in 1882 showed the economic opportunities offering on the land and opened up a new era for farming. Many now turned their attention to the land and there arose a genuine land hunger. ' By 1890 the best land in New Zealand had become freehold and much of it was locked up in large holdings. This, of course, did not mean that these large land-holders were unprogressive, for it was they who had advanced the techniques of farming. They had been responsible for the introduction of refrigeration and had made advances in cereal production. Their financial resources enabled them to carry the risks of experiment in the use of new machinery and in refrigeration. For . instance, John Grigg in 1883 took the responsibility of shipping a load of frozen meat to England, and through a breakdown in the re- „ frigerating equipment at sea lost several thousands of pounds. This, however, did not deter him.

It was partly because of their, work in advancing farming techniques that their holdings had to give way to the smaller arable farms. After refrigeration had stimulated a demand for land by the man with little capital some political action became necessary to help break up the large estates. The Liberal Government of the 90’s set about the task, first by. introducing the graduated' land tax in 1891, and it was under the provisions of this Act that the Cheviot Estate was acquired. The energetic Minister of Lands, John McKenzie, who brought to his task a burning ' conviction from his childhood in the Scottish Highlands of the right of a farming peasantry to have access to the land, introduced the repurchasing policy in 1892, and in a Land for Settlement Act of 1894 incorporated a clause under which estates could be compulsorily purchased. The machinery to acquire property by the State was. now complete, but the compulsory purchasing provision was very sparingly used, and" in fact was not necessary, as it appeared that many large land owners realised that a change had to eventuate, for the Government always had more estates offered to it than it could handle. The Government policy was definitely not .one ,of land nationalisation, for it was the Liberals who introduced the Advances to Settlers Act, which

was designed to enable men with small capital resources to acquire freehold properties. From this time there gradually came into being the smaller mixed farming units as we know them today. Some idea of this change can be gauged from the activities of the Government in purchasing land and subdividing it for settlement. In 1893 the total number of Crown leases in, Canterbury was 1020; by 1900 it had reached 2300, and by 1910 there were 3290. Several large properties, such as Cheviot in North Canterbury and Rosewill and Waikakahi in South Canterbury, had been acquired by this time, the two lastnamed being subdivided into 336 holdings.' ' ■ z • '< \ ' In the 70’s the farmer’s revenue came mainly from wool, but on most parts of the plains of Canterbury and Otago it now comes from many sources cereals, small seeds, fat lambs, and possibly a few cows, which bring , a little sideline revenue to the farmer's wife. The farmer is a man of many parts; he must know how to produce his cereal crops, grow small seeds, and produce. supplementary fodder crops for winter feed for his sheep; he must know something of . animal husbandry, and is often a mechanic when his implements develop faults, besides being a reluctant bookkeeper and form-filler to satisfy the demands of the Commissioner of Taxes and other Government Departments.

Acknowledgments Acknowledgments and thanks are expressed to a number of farmers in Canterbury who gave freely of their time to answer questions; to the secretary of the Canterbury A. and P. Association, and ,to Messrs. ,P. and D. Duncan of Christchurch and Reid and Gray of Dunedin, who made available some of their records. ... Photographs on page 364, the horse team on page 356, and the lower • photograph on page 360 are by Green and Hahn Ltd. Those on page 358 are by Rex Studios, Ashburton. References “New Zealand in the Making,” Condliffe; “Jubilee History of South Canterbury,” Anderson ; “Wheat in New Zealand,” Hilgendorf; “Fertilisers in New Zealand” (unpublished thesis), McCaskill; “Rural Economics of Australia and New Zealand,” Wallace; “Te Waimate,” Studholme; “History of North Otago,” MacDonald; New Zealand Encyclopaedia:: - “Agricultural Organisation in New Zealand,” Belshaw,' Williams, and Stephens; “Earliest Canterbury and Its Settlers,” Hay; “The Wheat' Grower;” “New Zealand Country Journal” (publication of the Canterbury A. and P. Association, 1876-1898); Canterbury .A. and P. , Association Reports; “Christchurch Press;” “Lyttelton Times;” Year Books and New Zealand Statistics, and Canterbury Agricultural College Magazine. -