Potential Farmland 300,000 Acres For Future Development

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 97, 20 September 1948, Page 5

Potential Farmland 300,000 Acres For Future Development

There have been varying ■ estimates of the extent of potential farm land west of the Waikato River and east of the Rangitoto Range, an area that is sure to command a great deal of attention in the next few years. - One estimate exceeds 300,000 acres from a line south of Ngaroma and and north 'of Lake Taupo and a line generally' extending * towarcl Mangapeehi on the Main Trunk Line. ■ Motor transport nowadays, with good roads, has made dairy farming practicable where formerly there could have been little encouragement. Opinions differ as to the relative advantages of sowing the Whakamaru and Mangakino country with grass seed in the autumn or spring, and perhaps there is a preponderance of opinion in favour of autumn sowing. This opinion is reached after a careful inspection of results already achieved, though there are sound practical farmers in the adjoining districts who hav« a preference for sowing grass in the spring-time. Roading is a factor in development work, and access at pi’esent is chiefly from Putaruru and Tokoroa. From the latter fast-developing township to the Whakamaru bridge is about 17 miles, and thereafter the farming land extends for several miles. . The country is light, with plenty of small pumice showing, and so far no permanent roads have been made, though tractors and graders have been used in places for easing •some of the grades.