WEST COAST PASTURE

Hokitika Guardian, 3 April 1929, Page 7

WEST COAST PASTURE

(Christchurch “Press.”)

Practically every week good seized lines of lambs from the West Coast are sold at Addington market, and in quite a number of cases they top the market. .Most of those come from districts contiguous to the railway, bul there are exceptions, and recently a good sized draft that was “lorried’' over 50 miles to the railhead at Ross figured at the top of the list of values Me visitor who sees the coast through the window of a railway train has a very faint idea of its productive possibilities. There are many thousands ol acres of warm, well-pastured valleytucked away towards the mountain! and now that systematic farming methods are becoming more general the 1 real productive capacity of the Coast is most apparent. Tt is to the southern end that the main expansion must be looked for, as below the Wnilm river there are broad flats capable of carrying ton times tin people and 20 'times the . stock. An instance of the feeding value of mud: of this country is illustrated by the fact that at a cattle sale at Watnroa, about 80 miles south of Hokitika, a line of 112 fat cattle- from the Haast averaged £ls a head. Notwithstanding that they had to be driven 180 miles they wore reported to hav< entered the sale in excellent- condition which is obvious from the price tliev made.