ON A PUNI FARM

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 3, Issue 160, 9 January 1914, Page 1

ON A PUNI FARM

FROM PURIRi FOREST TO SMILING

FIELDS.

MR W. ADAMS'S HOMESTEAD.

REDEEMED BY A PIONEER.

Iu the days of half-a-century ago settlers needed plenty of grit in their constitution when, axe in hand, they faced an unfriendly forest in determination to carve a home for themselves out of it. As wo look around us to-day it is difficult to realise that forty years ago the smiling fields at the homestead of Mr \V. Adams, of Puni, were forbidding forest. But in one of the paddocks stands the giant trunk of a great puriri tree whose girth and the butts of its huge scrawling branches enable one iu imagination to till in the picture which faced the early pioneers. The fences that stand to-day were hewn and split from the trees that flourished then. The ground that grows its prolific grass and root crops is fertilised by the falling humus of centuries. Time, aided by the axe and tire, has eaten the rugged, stumps of the fallen puriri out of the soil, leaving the ploughable surface ready to yield its eternal profits to the hand of man. The hard toil has bean endured and the farm is now ready for the harvest of the agriculturist or the dairyman.

Shorthorns and other crosses. They are of a good type and should serve well as the foundation for a profitable herd. THE HEIFER QUEENIE. Queenie was so quiet and tractable and stood so like a little lady to have her picture taken that sho was seized upon by the photographer as the cow to represent the herd. Queenie was bred by Mr R. Wilkinson, of Pukekohe, and was a first prize-winner at seven months old. She is now approaching three-year-old and has had her secoud calf. She has not been tested this year, but last season, with her first calf, she gave 30lbs of milk per day during the principal period with a J '_' test. Queenie is not without her peeresses in the herd for there are at least half'-a-do/.en as good, just entering the age when they become of the greatest profit to the dairyman. But she has been pictured as a typical representative of the herd. HOW MIXED FARMING PAYS. Mr Adams is an advocate of mixed farming and lie lias found that it pays. Waste is eliminated,

\H A GRASS PADDOCK.

WHERE THE FARM IS. , Before referring to the produc- j tivity of this farm it might be well j to say that the ninety-two acres farmed by Mr Adams are divided into two lots. At the homestead, j a little over three miles from Takekohe, turning to the left just after passing the Puni store, there are 6G acres, and along the Puni road, only | 2! miles from Pukekohe, this side of the Puni store, there is a second block of 27 acres. It will thus be seen that the next owner of the placo will have a line, opportunity of! making money by subdividing the j 00 acres into two and selling the 27 acres separately. (We feel confident I that the time is rapidly coming—forced ou by the increasing ditliculty of securing suitable labourwhen 27 or o.j acres, well culti- j vated, will be found to be sufficiently large for the wejl-directed energies ;of a big family. Mr Adams, it may be mentioned, is now advancing in years and has decided to retire from his active pursuits of fanning alter a lifo well-spent on Puni soil.

and when conditions are bad in on e ! direction thoy are good in another. ' During l'Jl'2, and without working | unduly hard, the 92 acres yielded ! receipts to tlie tune of £loo6—a tidy j return indeed. The sums were made I up as follows : | £. s. Potatoo .. 601 13 Butter-fat .. 297 ■> | ' Pigs .. .. ")<) 0 Calve, .. .. 12 0 Hay •• •• ;;:i 1< Straw .. .. •'> '•' Chaff .. .. ' :; Eggs .. .. I'J 6 Turnips .. .. 8 13 106G li A SNUG SITUATION. Profitable as the land has proved | to be it has the advantage of being i snugly situated; with a big propor- ! tion of land lying to the sun and j none of it in a really exposed posiI tion. The surrounding panoramic \ views are a perpetual delight to the j eye, and the farm is capable of beI ing made into a first-rate homestead.

GLANCE AT THE HEED. | On tin; farm tiii-, h'h>ou Mi Adams has 27 cows milking. From practically the same herd season ho received over X'i'.'i for butter-fat sold, beside.-, the uso that was made oi the whole milk, cream and skim-milk cm the farm. For |',ii:>-l I Mr Adams has goiio in for homo separation and his butter-fat cheques for the five moutlia of July to November, l'.'l'., totalled JClSti on ;kl as follows :- I. .-. d. July .. .. 1" ' ' •'• August .. I- " I Spptemliei . ■ : >'> !•' ' October .. H "' 7 November .'. 1-1" ' Tho cattle group that we -liow i" the picture was taken ■ [Uit*- at r.iudom, just those lew animals being taken that happened t m' within range of the eam< ra. Tin cattle are it mixed lot and imludc Joioi\ ~

ON THE MARKET. 11!- many I'riendi will feel regret that the failing health suit'eml by Mi Adams has determined him to relinquish his farm, the boys at limn-not yet being old enough to manage the place. His idea at present, in order tc avoid the worry of h clearing sale and the cutting up of the property, is to -ell the whole as a going concern having it to the incomer to make the " cutting-up profits." The price put upon tin' place is only sixty pounds an acre and that unhides a live-roomed house, sheds, granary, cow-slmd, teiaing, -u cows, heiferand.alves. I'J well-bred pi--, a lot of poultry, vehicle-, bum implements, i rop- a-, they .-(and in fact, for the price one simply goes in and takes up the running where Mr Adams loaves oil utter loity years work. Tins l'lim property shows what a good thing there is in taming on a small scale iu tins magnificent district.