PRIMARY PRODUCTION.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVI, Issue 4798, 12 January 1925, Page 3

PRIMARY PRODUCTION.

AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL.

SUITABILITY OF NORTH ISLAND. Dealing generally with agricultural and pastoral production, the latest official Year Book makes the following reference to the North Island : “The North Island of the Dominion 4s remarkable for the congenial environment it furnishes for many phases of primary production. In no part, is the winter really severe, and the question of stalling stock during the colder months of the year has not to be considered. It is more a grazing than an agricultural country, and practically all the cereal crops raised are for feeding farm stock. The dominant industries are dairying and sheep farming. There is probably no finer sheep country in the world than the limestone downs of Hawke’s BayIt may be said with every confidence that there is more butter produced to the acre on many farms in the Taranaki district than on any equal area in the world when it is considered that all the food provided for the stock is produced on the farm itself. The standard of dairy farming is steadily improving, not only by reason of special fodder being provided for the drier parts of the summer and the colder months of the year, but on account of the fact that the farmer is coming to realise the value ofi herdtesting and culling.

“In various parks of the island fruitgrowing, principally of apples, pears, and peaches, is being placed on a sound commercial basis. In the northern portion citrus fruits can be successfully produced, jand, with the adoption of better storage and marketing methods, lemons in particular are .being cultivated on a considerable scale. Outdoor grapes are frceiy grown. Both the . North and South Islands have established an export trade in apples, and to a less extent in pears.

"During recent years the Waikato and Hauraki Plains districts, and the Auckland province in general, have shown themselves to be admirably adapted to the dairy industry, and dairying has made rapid development. The Auckland district, in fact, has become easily the largest exporter of buttor in the Dominion, while it also leads in the production of milk powder.

“With the adoption of approved methods in the treatment of the land, and the demonstration of correct manurial tieatment, farming in the Auckland province has been placed on a much more stable basis. Assisted by a favourable climate, of which a short and mild winter is a feature, stockraising of all descriptions is being carried on with conspicuous success,. The country is eminently adapted for the production of root and fodder crops, and stock can be brought to maturity and fattened for the market at a minimum of cost.’’