OUR LETTER BOX.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVI, Issue 111, 14 May 1904, Page 2

OUR LETTER BOX.

(Wo art) at all tlmeß willing to publish correspondence on jnatterg ol public interest, but Tl'Avust bo die-. Line! ly understood thu\j«» are Hot ldentUietl with ,th« lotters of our correspondents,—lid. Daily News.) DOES FARMING I'AY ? (To the Editor.) Sir,—ln your issue of this day you broach a subject which deserves all the ventilation it can receive does farming in Taranaki pay at present prices V A correspondent to the Eltham Argus seems to think that a man paying £125 ior good land can make a prolit ;I am prepared to show that he can only make a loss at present prices o£ produce and labour. On tiiis subject J. recently prepared data lor an article, and in doing so I utilised not only my own experience, which is considerable,but also sought information from the Government Vet. and from the very best authorities 011 farming in Taranaki. The result of my investigation is that those who buy land ut anything over £.20 per aero land themselves into a very substantial loss. In making inquiries 1 found that not one farmer in twenty had any accurate idea as to the amount to lie annually written ofl the value of the herd, tho buildings, the fences and the grass. Many farmers had no system of book-keeping and many ol them allowed nothing for such expense as rates and taxes. t C i a ' S ° , CUe< i' the corres Pondeni makes tho absurd allowance that the farmer must employ his own family —why ? '

0 regular wage during the past, season for good farm labour was -os per week ; any farmer with suilicient labour to milk, say, 60 cows would employ members of -his family who, if allowed to go out, would earn a considerable sum ; certainly not les® than £3 per week. I am convinced that the depression and ■the Shortening <,f credit, of which most Taranaki people are now complaining, are due to this one ev-il-—the over-capitalisation of land. With land at from £2O to £3O per acre, with cows at from £8 to £l2 per head, with labour at from 20s to 30s per week, and flutter fetching only 88s in the English market, the incoming farmer rides for a very cruel fall. After I had collected my figures for my article which was to h*vo bepn heftdod "Ledger Keeping on gjo Fftrm," I consulted the farmer who, in all my experience last season, had done best. His yield was especially heavy, his output of pigs was large, and on 200 acres he milked 100 cows, as well as raising his lieilers. Alter hearing my s tat£ ment of the test I intended to aPply to the industry, he said ■— Even in my case, if you opened a nmnt ' l ?? ou ? l> !t wo,lltl "°t show a piolit, allowing, of course, interest at trade rates qn tho present selling' price of my j and mu , „ limt l,n t Some day land will command even More that 00 " tlMn * U xioic that comes about English labourers will ]mvo 4xl 'or our boys don't care for wo?kand a much higher stuto of cultivation will )uu , e t0 be intP(H]uced 1 ai anaki s best friends will certainly ot advocate paying the present hifch prices ior land,—l am, etc., DUNBOY.