FARMING TO ADVANTAGE

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 16, 9 April 1927, Page 18

FARMING TO ADVANTAGE

Lessons Of The Past

VALUE OF SMALL HOLDINGS

In no industry does lack of capital do greater harm than in farming. Restricted finance inevitably reflects on returns, and the whole organisation of the property suffers.

The reason for many poorly-farmed properties in this country to-day is not so much bad management on the part of the owner, as lack of capital with which to work. In fact, in many cases even in the best of times, some farmers never had a chance. They have been fighting an up-hill fight against almost insurmountable odds. Interest and other charges have absorbed all returns, and there has bee i no surplus with which to carry out improvements. UNWIELDY FARMS The trouble in many instances is attributable, not so much to high land values, as to the farmer having, in common parlance, “bitten off more than he can chew.” Inst ead of taking over a property of a size in accordance with his pocket, he has taken advantage of a low deposit and gone the “limit.” In other words, he has bought in with an idea of acquiring the largest possible acreage for the money he had available, and now, faced with heavy interest accounts, he finds himself with little surplus for prosecuting the necessary improvements. There is only one class of farming which pays, and that is, intensive farming. In all parts of the Dominion to-day there are to be found farmers handling properties from which they are receiving only partial returns. The same energy and enterprise extended on a property of less acreage would, for a smaller initial cost, bring in similar aggregate returns and the farmer would have the satisfaction of knowing that he was showing worth-while results for his labour. ECONOMICAL SUBDIVISION LIMIT While, varying with different classes •f land, there is an economic limit

to which subdivision of farm properties should be prosecuted, undoubtedly many of the men on the land to-day would have been in a better position if they had taken over properties of a lesser acreage and concentrated on intensive farming. Farmers in the past have looked too much to acreage for increased returns rather than greater production from present holdings. The dairying industry is a case to the point. It must be admitted that even in the best districts of New Zealand there is room for great improvement in methods of control. In few instances, also, are the herds yielding returns that would compare favourably with some of the European dairying districts where the farmers have to work under far greater climatic and other handicaps than are to be found in New Zealand. VALUABLE INSTANCES Every district in the Dominion has its instances of the value of intensive farming—farms where every acre is utilised to the greatest advantage and the soil is kept in the highest economical state of fertility, with the stock always in good condition, and where, by the introduction of high-grade sires and careful culling the stock is continually being improved. To-day, despite the cries of pessimists to be heard in some parts, there is a healthy demand for farm properties at lower values than those ruling at the beginning of this decade. It is pleasing to note, however, that it is the small farm which is finding the readiest sale. It is to be hoped, therefore, that the need of the day has been recognised and the farmer will look for increased returns from a property within the scope of his finances, rather than from greater acreage.