ROTOTAWAI.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 984, 26 November 1910, Page 17

ROTOTAWAI.

•SHEEP PAY FOR HORSES,

SOME JVOTED THOROUGHBREDS

Not far away, from Pihautea lies Rototawai, the home of Mr. W. E. Bidwill.' As stated'above, Rototaw'ai was formerly a.portion of the old Tihautea property, which was divided up among the sons of Mr.-CR. Bidwill upon his death in ,1884. '■. ' ■•■-.• Mr. Bidwill is a creat believer in tree-planting, and . his residence at Rotbtawai is approached from tho road down what should some day bo,; one of .the finest avenues to be found in the province. English trees of different kinds' have been planted two or three , rows ■ deep on each side of a straight N drive,'about a .quarter of'a .mile long; and. are. making; remarkably. good progress.. They, are well sheltered by belts of. pines, which run , along the outside of the plantation, ,and at present form its most conspicuous feature ■ from a distance.-'. ,'.)" . • . , .'..'' ' At tho end of the avenue tho carriage drive! sweeps round through the ■garden to' Mr.' Bidwill's' residence. Just before entering the garden the visitor also catches sight on the left, of the track on which Mr. Bidwill trains his racehorses. ■. ; , . , : Rototawai contains 2282 acres of 'freehold land, and 1512 acres of.leasehold. The land is highly ' cultivated and fenced, and is.drained in a very substantial manner. There are about 150 acres of plantations on tho property, mostly, composed of gums and pinus insignis. Mr. Bidwill makes it a, rule to plant a certain acreage every year, as the land is .ploughed and grassed down. Shelter for stock, ho considers, is as_ much as half tho feed. Tho estate is divided up into sixty paddocks, and ■altogether is one- of tho ,most improved and up-to-dato in the country./' jvir. Bidwill was born upon it fifty , yeats ago, and has lived- upon it ever since. Practically everything ho has mado out of tho place ho lias laid out again in improvements. Rototawai is noted for two lines of stock —its Romuey Marsh sheep aud it thoroughbred norses. As Mr. Bidwill has been breeding Romneys all his life, and his father before him, the flock is consequently one of tho oldest in the colony. Tho rams bred on tho place arc much sought after, and it is necessary to ruaUo application twelve, months in advance in order to bo certain of securing sheep. Tho Rototawai Romneys aro very low set, dense in tho wool, and are well woollcd all over. Tho main thing considered by Mr. Bidwill, however, is constitution. This' comes first in all his stock, horses, cattle, and sheep. The Americans always take the Rototawai wool, and last year the, (lock—consisting only of ewes nnd. boggcta—avoriißed 101b. 40z., when ehoru in Octobor, The prico realised ia Lwidoßj in-