TO MAKE FARMING PAY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 2027, 11 September 1919, Page 2

TO MAKE FARMING PAY.

“ONE of the things we huvo got to learn is how to make farming pay with land at from £7O to'£loo an acre," writes the Manawatu correspondent of the Farmers’ Union .Advocate. “Those who have been farming, at prices .of land between £0 and £2O an acre, must haye a great deal to learn. They have been able to make a - living,’if not a fortune, on their land at these prices, but must have been very remiss if the same land can show a profit at £IOO, True, dairying has apparently been profitable, but less so than is generally thought. No doubt good wages have been made by farmers, but if a farm was run on commercial lines and all labour had to be paid at ruling, rates, together with interest; there would be little or no sur-

plus to show as profit. The fact is that there is a land boom on, which looks like reaching the dimensions of a South Sea bubble, I hope the result will not be' the same as in Law’s famous scheme. Certainly high rents stimulate production, for production must proceed or interest cannot be paid. The system, however, which enables a man to go into a £3,000 or £4,000 .property with, say, £SOO, just enough to pay for the first deposit, and sometimes to have to borrow money to buy eows, will not stand if prices resume normal levels. I heard the other day a Judge say that a case had come before him where there were' seven mortgages running at the same time on a farm.”