“Waste Gum Lands”

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 732, 3 August 1929, Page 27

“Waste Gum Lands”

Accepted Term Proved a Misnomer

BP to within a fesv years ago the terra “waste gum-lands’’ applied to certain districts in the North was fairly gkenerally accepted. Today, there are many registering considerable doubt that any land hi the North should be termed such. The application of fertilisers and the use of intensive farming methods have brought large areas that were previously considered worthless into a state of profitable occupation.

A recent trip through a portion o£ the so-called gumland area convinced the writer that there is little ploughable country in the North which cannot be profitably worked. A wide variation of farming methods, reflecting a big divergence of opinion on the question of management, is presented to the visitor north of Auckland. It is quite common to see a farm with pastures in splendid heart, and stock in the best of condition, set down amidst a wilderness of stunted scrub and indifferently farmed properties. Yet the very presence of the well farmed sections is a challenge to the rest of the district, and proof that the term “waste land" is largely a misnomer when applied to the North. A convincing advertisement to good management following intensive farming methods and the judicious use of fertilisers is to be found within half an hour of the Auckland Post Office, in Glendene Farm, a 43-acre block, situated alongside the Great North Road, in the Grey Lynn district. Little more than five years ago the block was covered with scrub. Today it would be safe to say that it is one of the most intensely farmed properties in the Dominion, while it is proving a highly profitable proposition to its owner. Indicating what intensive farming can do, it keeps nine men on its permanent payroll. It carries a herd oi 28 pedigree Jerseys, runs between 70C

and SOO pigs, and over 2,000 bead of poultry. The pastures are in perfect heart, -while last season over 60 tons of hay -was taken off, in addition to green feed and- roots grown for the cows and pigs. There is little waste on the farm. The piggeries are models in efficii ency; the animals are housed under I ideal conditions, which allow for a I cleaning down of the floors twice a I day. The food iis conveyed by taps to each pen by an ingenious arrangement of vats and pipes, while the drainage system is so arranged that everything passes through a septic tank, to be sent to all parts of the farm by an electric pump. Each week a j consignment of approximately 40 fat pigs is sent in to Westfield, and each week the biggest part of this number has to be replaced with stores. Breeding is not carried on extensively on : the farm. The milking shed is also a model of cleanliness and modern farm efficiency. One of the big factors working to the heavy carrying capacity of the land is undoubtedly the small size of the paddocks. This, and topdressing, helped by a judicious change of the stock from one paddock to another, combines to keep the pastures in splendid heart at all seasons of the year. When one visits Glendene Farm, and realises that it has been developed from land equal to some of the worst of what was once spoken of slightingly as “waste gumland,” one realises that there is a big future in sight for the North. One goes further, in fact, and wonders that more is not done in the way of intensive farming, helped by cultivation and the correct use of top-dressing manures.