Farming Column

Hokitika Guardian, 9 July 1932, Page 8

Farming Column

“MERELY OWNERS OF GROUND.”

During the last two years many fanners have discovered that they are not farmers at all. They are mei'ely owners of ground that I. as no immediate se'Rse of gratitude flor all the money that has been put into it. Like Oliver Twist, it thinks nothing of crying out for more, says an overseas paper.

The average farm reminds one of rfothing so much as that estimable bird, the pelican, .whose beak, so the vulgar fc rhyme tells us, can hold more than its —er —tummy can. Too late has more than one farmer discovered that this appears to be the chief characteristic of land —or, at any rate, of the piece he owns. His next thought is to wish that he didn’t own it, and owned instead all the money it has swallowed so voraciously. To own a farm and no money was all very well when credit was easy; but now that credit is a glorious dream of the past, and interest a galling nightmare of the present and future, he could do with a little more money and a lot less farm. .Too late lie remembers how, when he actually made some money out of the farm (oh shades of departed wealth!), he hastened to put it back into the land instead of into loans, or, ever more appropriately, into the chilctVon’s money boxes. With an inspired expression on his face he happily set to work to buy more machinery and hire, more fa hour, so that 1 lie. could plough more land end make more money.

In many cases he pu(t so much money back into the land that he omite forgot that he had a house, let alone a wi"e and children. These latter were hastily clothed and fed on credit, because the instalment on the disc plough was due; and also the instalment on the extra land he had bought.

No Cash or Credit Left

To-day he can’t run his new tractor after the. splendid, rains because he has no money with which to buy power paraffin, and when he has raised enough cash to send an advance to the hard-hearted oil firm the rain has long since stopped. Or he lias had to sell his farm to' pay the interest on his bond, so it makes ho difference to him whether it rains or not. Presently the accumulation of his debts overwhelms him, and his land goes to pay hjs creditors.

And when the .first shock has worn .off he is astonished to find that he has never felt better in hitf life. His wife looks younger; if shabbier. The terrible torturing load of debt, that i Sword of Damocles, has jincredibly been swept away. Once more he feels ; a man, free to face the unburdened if ■uncertain future.

He has realised at least that to own more land, more goods, or even /more clothing and food than one can pay for, is to’ place on one’s shoulders a: load that Increases with the years, even as the shoulders inevitably weaken. r •

Out of all the misery and tragedy that have come upon the farming community during the past few bitter years, one valuable fact stands clear; it is that unless the capital involved is sufficient to admit of a safe amount for running costs and incidental expenses after the farm is purchased it is folly of ail extreme kind to! think of purchasing a farm.

;■ Many a farmer stands ruined to’day not so much because, he couldn’t make his farm pay, as that whatever money the farm brought in went on 'interest on the loan raised in years 'gone by wherewith to buy the farm. : If he had- leased his farm instead of ’purchasing he would have enjoyed, 'and would still be enjoying several : advantages. ’, Advantages of Not Buying. The capital that went to buy the farm could have been partly invested and partly used for efficient machinery and labour. No farm that is run on credit can be run economically. It .is a well-known fact that the poor man seldom enjoys a bargain. It is very rarely his luck to be able to buy when goods are cheap, and if he had anything to sell when goods wei;e dear he probably was not a poor man.

To buy machinery on credit limits the farmer’s choice both in quality and type of and, increases the outlay.

The man who is out to buy a farm is almost without exception restricted m Ids.choice, owing to the amount of money involved. One i.lte.i hears the remaik among farmers, “Of course if I’d had a- wider choice 1 shouldn’t be on this 1 arm to-day!” Whether bis failure is truly due to the farm or not, few will ever know., The fact, however, is clear that a wider choice at any rate offers the opportunity of a choice.

By keeping enough capital back for running costs, debt, that enemy cf all 1 business enterprise, is kept at bay. If, i s difficult for the man who has bis farm on lease to increase bis scale of operations to such an extent as to be completely wiped out by the recoil No Security Means No Debts . He is far more likely to concent ration ‘ what lie lias undertaken, improving his methods here and ' stopping a leakage there, ..until bis methods begin to pay. His object nearly always Is to save, partly because be bo-c > one day to own a farm without the usual encumbrances and partly because be has no farm to offer as , security he dare not get into debt. .

If lie makes less out of his farm on account of his limited field of operations that little, at any rate, is his. Ix does not have to go to the moneylenders or to long-suffering creditors., But perhaps the greatest advantage attached to leasing a farm is that one is not hopelessly committed. If the f arm cannot be made to pay, or if the locality has been grossly over-rated, the. implements and the few head of stock can be sold withbut 'any gbeat loss being involved.

/Many a man has found after he has bought and paid for his‘ farm, that he is no farmer after all. He should have opened a garage or become a professor of economics. But now, for the rest of his life, he must farm, and another failure is the result.

Or perhaps he discovers after a year or so that he is much more successful at handling stock than at growing crops, or vice versa. It. is still within his power to change over and make good.

If the depression has taught the farmer nothing else, he has learned by bitter experience the value and power of cash. When times improve he will probably forget again if allowed to—human nature is like that. Lookers-on, however, see nrst of the game, and there are many who have profited by the mistakes of the strugglng farmer of to-da!y. Those who feel the urge to farm will realise that the present is a good time in which to start. Both land and goods are cheap; so take your courage in both hands, put your cash in the bank and go ahead and lease your farm.

HAVE LIVING COSTS FALLEN

PROTECTIVE TARIFFS’ EFFECT

A Home paper: has the followingCheaper Flour:—The price- of standard grad© flour in the Home Counties h’r been reduced' by Is to 25-s per 280 if», 6cl to Is less within the London districts.’’ In the South Island a 2001 b sack of flour costs 355, therefore 28 would cost 49s or just double tb° British price. This is what profction is doing with the bread, “the staff of life”- in order that a lc hundreds of Canterbury farmers car carry on their operations at a profit The duty on wheat is also a serious handicap' to the poultry industry and in the -smalil farms plan -poultry keeping will have to be one of the main -sources of revenue. (Poultry on the table is a luxury few peoplg/ can afford and at certain seasons eggs are at prohibitive prices though the producers are making meagre profits owing largely to the price of wheat. ' It is'a gross anomaly that the whole community should -bo heavily taxed on the main article of food to provirl profits for a very small 'section.

DUTY ON FOREIGN BUTTER

WOULD BENEFIT N.Z. PRODUCERS

“A duty of 20s a cwt. on foreign—that is, outside the British Empire—-biit,te-v undoubtedly would assist both Australian and New Zealand producers of butter. ... A protection of 3d a lb on_Jbutter might eventually drive a large proportion of butter-fat supplies from cheese factories, and so increase the prouiiction of butter to the detriment o-f th e cheese industry." That wa-s part of the opinion of a Christchurch" dairy -produce' exporter on the cabled statement from London that the British farmers were requesting the Import Advisory Committee at Home to impose a duty of 20s a cwt. on imported foreign butter, entailing 3d a lb .extra tb the conisujner. and inducing the Dominions to export more butter in compar'-son with cheese, which. competes with the British puoduct. The exporter considered that the producer .woulld not be affected by a restriction in the importation ’ of cheese, as he would make up in the price for his supplies for the butter factories.

“At the present time,” he- said, “the ' premium, on Danish butter over New Zealand salted is only 3s a cwt., it being the end of the New Zealand season and coming on to ithe peak of the Danish one, but when the seasons are reversed Denmark often shows

.premium .which is frequently 14s and over 20s over New Zealand. I-t ir

-nr’te possible,- therefore, that there will still be many purchasers of Danish butteir even if the price exceeds that of New Zealand in the read! t/rrde bv 3d a lb.

“In any case, however, the protection must be of 'assistance to t 1 British Dominions if it is successfully carried iou.”

Referring to the restriction ' n cheese, lie said that undoubtedly -b" protection of 3d a ib -on butter, ever if it increased the price by half tb i -arqlount vfo'ild h 1 vri the effect of driving dual-plant factories to nil 1- - i-ig butter. and misrht eventually drive a large proportion” of snpp’i'" from cheese fact 4,o ladjace t butter factories, and ,so incre’—' production of butter to the detriment of the cheese -industry. PRICES OF SKINS. Prices obtained .at the Auckland riale of hides and isliecpskius last month were the lowest for many years. First quality medium-sized.* bides, which a few years ago sold for Is » lb., brought less than 3d. Fraction > no’ exporters are operating, ami ™tcs were lower for all hides’ except best cow, which remained unchanged. Similarly depressed conditions obtained in the sheepskins section j