WHAT TARANAKI GROWS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 189, 14 September 1909, Page 1

WHAT TARANAKI GROWS

It's little, but it's wise Ami a terror for its size. . . . —Old Ballad.

What Taranaki grow»', besides butter and cheese, lias been fold by a writer in the Now Zealand Farmer:—

" Taranaki's production of tlniry produce," lie says, "seems wonderfully good wlicii' the size of the province is considered. There arc less than a million ami a c;uarter acres of land in occupation there, while there . ,<■ .itiuiit thirtycig'ht millions occupiin in the Dominion. The proportion under cultivation, though, is much in favor of Taranaki, which has nearly a niiillion acres thus in us'e, while the total in New Zea-laml is between fifteen and sixteen millions. The holdings in faranaki average about 170 acres. The average for the Dominion i> over 200 acres. Taranaki has 32,500 acres under crops, and 050 acres tallowland; 35,000 acres are in grasses, of wliir'h 22,500 are hi tuss'oek and native grasses. Of tlie 13,000 acres of sown grasses 5,000 arc on ploughed land and 8000 on lands not ploughed. Not much fruit or tree-growing is done, as the extent of the orchards is only ij,500 acres. Of the grain crops in Taranaki, oats, as in other parts) of New Zealand, is in the heaviest acreage. There are about 10,000 acres of oats grown, and the next heaviest grain is barley, wllicft is little more than a tenth so extensively grown. There arc about 400 acres of wheat, 300 acres of maize, and not 100 acres of rye. The total grain cultivation amounts to little more than one per cent, of the area, so utilised in ttie-mtole dominion. The province figures better in green crops. The comparative percentage per acre in mangolds is heavier I than in any other province. Tarnnaki 'has over 1300 acres of the root crop down, Hawke's Bay less than 1000 acres, Auckland and Wellington less still, Canterbury about 3,800 acres, and Otago 1500 or 11)00 acres. The area of mangolds grown in Taranaki is more than one-eighth of the area grown in the dominion. About 700 or 800 acres of Taranaki soil is used for growing potatoes, and 17,000 for turnip raising, both of which show proportionately heavy comparative cropping; while 3500 to '4OOO are down in rape. Very little ■beet is grown, and about 700 acres of carrots. Of tir> lunl used for feeding 1 down 173,000 acres have been ploughed and sown, most in grass, and a few hundred acres in clover, The land not ploughed lint surface sown totals about 730,000 acres. About 1-1,000 acres is ns'ed for hay, and a tenth of that area for ensilage,"