FIFTY POUNDS PER ACRE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 354, 22 April 1911, Page 5

FIFTY POUNDS PER ACRE.

Southwards from Feilding, writes Mr R. J. Eames, in tha "Feilding Star," towards and past Palmerston, one gets into country which is more expensive than that on the north side of Feilding. Between the Manawatu and Oroua rivers there are the fine Kairanga flats, and, so far as the writer could gather, there is no land anywhere within three miles of Palmerston North, in the locality indicated, for less than £SO an acre. Patches of the best land under cows, in practically every dairy centre in the North Island, has touched or is touching that figure, and some of it, in especially favoured places, is already commanding half as much again.

And there is a general belief, notwithstanding the warnings from financial institutions which have been referred to in earlier articles, that the limit has not been reached by a long way. In conversation with a bank manager the other day the writer remarked that, so far as he could judge, and with dairying conditions as they are at present, the men who have paid or are paying £SO an acre are having very strenuous time, and that if all things were taken into account not forgetting to credit the working members of the family with an amount approximating to the sum that "foreign" labour would cost the milk cheque would not look at all imposing. Said the banker: "My opinion is that, where the land is really good, where adapted for dairying, and suitably situated so far as the factory and school are concerned, buyers of today at the price you mention will in the course of a few years exclaim with satisfaction: 'Yes, and I got it for £SO an acre!'" The worth of that opinion remains to be proved but for the present it would be of inestimable public value if farmers who are operating on a £SO basis were to write to the editor of this paper showing exactly how much can be made out of dairying, after paying £SO an acre for, say, a 100-acre farm actually carrying, as some farmers affirm, a cow to the acre all the year round. The system of farming adopted to enable that cow to be carried, ought also to be explained. It would be extremely interesting to hear the opinions of our readers on this vital matter.

We wore shown on Thursday last a ; fruit that is entirely new to Taranaki, , says the "News." It is called the Spanish torongu or grape fruit. Mr .T. Kowe, of Bell Kock, imported the i young tree four years ago from Cali- \ fornia, and this year a splendid crop :of fruit is on the branches. [nap- : pearance the fruit is very like an ■ orange, but about two or three times as large. In place of only one fruit growing on a stem there are clusters of from four to eight. In flavour the , fruit, when ripe, resembles that of a I luscious orange. The plant or tree is about four feet high, grows very sturdily, and appears to suit the Taranaki climate.