OUR STAPLE INDUSTRIES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 251, 2 March 1911, Page 3

OUR STAPLE INDUSTRIES.

RURAL NEW ZEALAND UNDER REVIEW I . No. 10. | [All Rights. Reserved.] (By R. ,1. EAMES). HAWKE'S isAY: PROVINCE OF THE GOLDEN FLEECE. AX OASIS OF FRUFT. Coining southwards from Gisborne and Wairoa and approaching to Napier, one passes through miles of summer-brown hills, and the undulating treelessness continues down to the fringes of the bush whiefi a few years ago "had its milling centre at Dannevirke. ]!ut just south of Napier, and thereabouts, embracing such well-known place# as Meanee, Taradale, Clive, Hastings and Havelock, there is a charming oasis of fruit. This year, those orchardists in the more exposed places use another adjective. They were struck by a frost which ruined the peach crop. The circumstance made it hard work to get any information at all. I saw the manager of a big fruit concern there and his view of the situation was most gloomy. Even a cheerful suggestion, tliat just as one swallow doesn't make a summer so one frost need not necessarily mean disaster to the district, did not help matters. "Here," he said, waving a deprecatory hand, "are,23o acres of orchard and not a poach on it. There," he added, pointing with an accusing finger, "are 80 acres of land anil not a peach on it!" A lot of the favored ones are congratulating themselves upon having escaped the scourge. .Some of the fruit businesses are in a big way. At Frimley, for instance, the lines of peaches are usually spoken of as "a lmndred miles of fruit trees." The Te Mata vinery is another big undertaking and in the cellars the rows of huge casks (a number costing £SO apiece) bear fragrant evidence of past vintages. The proprietary, however, like grape-growers all over the Dominion, are living in a state of painful uncertainty. They have worked and planted and waited for 15 years and now they are facing that threatening sword —the Voice of the People. Most of the orchardists have places running from five to 15 acres. Some time ago peach land, in, say, 10-aere orchards, was selling at £'Bo an acre, but with a bad shake to the fruit market it has come down to £6O. Apples and pears command somewhere about £OO an acre. These prices generally include the house and shed improvements, which usually have done some years of .service. HER MAJESTY AT HASTINGS. Throughout the fruit oasis there are patches of land of great richness, for a carrying capacity of a cow to the acre is claimed. This, of course, in favorable seasons. At fifty pounds an acre buyers are found. Generally speaking, the pasture stands for six to ten years, and one lot the writer saw had been down 15 years and looked well. The Heretaunga Co-operative Dairy Company is at Hastings. It is for the greatei part served by fai.ners on fifteen, twenty and thirty-acre blocks. Last season 12*0 tons of butter were made and this year 150 tons are expected. So far as could be ascertained confidence in the district for dairying is not yet established with sufficient firmness to induce settlers to put all the suitable country that is available under cows. A good season promotes extension; a bad check from the weather turns the thought again from butter-fat to sheep. However, the view of the chairman of directors, as presented to the last annual meeting of shareholders, cannot be omitted. He said: "I would again urge upon the settlers in and around Hastings to go into dairying in a more systematic and scientific manner. We have land in our midst which will carry one cow to the acre, and that cow will return from £HJ to £l3 per [ year, and yet we see sheep being grazed on this land which cannot under .most favorable circumstances be producing anywhere near this amount. As 1 predicted last year, dairying is being carried on in and around Hastings on a much larger scale, and I anticipate that in a few years the whole of our rich Hats will be grazing cows and not be wasted on sheep." ANOTHER BUTTF.R-FAT AREA. The rich flats to which we have alluded are small in comparison with the ranges of hills, northwards and southwards. All along the road, to the mountains in the west and to the seashore on the east, there are sheep-walks. A good deal of the land would sell readily if cut up and in such townships as Waipawa and Wajpukurau it is a matter of daily complaint that the back country is held by so few families. To the north of Ormondville there is another change in the country, and one runs into territory, redeemed from the bush, which serves, and serves well, the purposes of the dairyman. Along the Onnondvillc-Norsewood road one sees the prosperous fruits of 3l> years' labor. Where there was then dense bush, beautified by pungas, the homesteads of an industrious people now stand. Originally these farms were in 40-acre lots, but with the changes that have occurred some of the dairymen now hold three or four sections. Along this road the Darns sealed, whilst at an earlier time, 38 or 3'.) years ago, Xorsewood was peopled by Swedes and Norwegians. Ormondville, which caught the Jersey craze, has a good sprinkling of this breed's cross, but the proprietor of a factory there is setting himself out to establish a pure Holstein herd. land values run from £2O to £25 an acre. A 40-acre farm, with improvements, changed hands recently at £2l. A competent and reliable authority stated that the carrying capacity of this farm was 12 cows and a horse. The lands hereabouts have not yet been manured, although they now need it. In the matter of pigs no crops are grown for their feeding, and only enough swine are kept to dispose of the by-product of the cow. Last year's average test at Ormondville was 3.9. The dairying area is extending and between Norsewood, Ormondville and Takapau it is expected that another 7000 or 8001) acres will be available for the cow within a few years. This land, it is estimated, is worth about £ls an acre. In 1909-10 Norsewood made SO tons of butter and •205 tons of cheese, and Ormondville turned out 75 tons of cheese. Southwards, there is no limit to the butter-fat area, am] the cow competes more than successfully against the sheep in a number of places between Norsewood and \\ oodville, which latter place marks the southern boundary of the llawke's Hay land district.