OUR STAPLE INDUSTRIES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 263, 16 March 1911, Page 3

OUR STAPLE INDUSTRIES.

RURAL NEW ZEALAND UNDER REVIEW. No. 21. [All Rights Reserved.] (By R. J. EAMES). WELLINGTON: A PROVINCE PROGRESSIVE. GLANCE AT THE AREA. Before taking our bird's-eye view of Wellington land district it may be as well to refresh tlic memory concerning the areas with which we are dealing. These are the acreages comprised in. the four districts of the North Island; Land district. . ■■■ Acres. Auckland 13,858,000 Wellington ...:..... 6,810,953 Hawkc'sßay. 5,508,900 Taranaki 2,417,299 Of the four disticta, Wellington can perhaps claim the greatest diversity of striking rural interests. Its climate, as well as the quality ami quantity of its land, makes all classes of farming profitably possible. It has blocks of dairying land which from the point of view of price and productivity are not overshadowed by the renowned Taranaki; in wool and mutton and beef, it rivals Ifawke's Bay; while for grain-growing it has particular stretches of country not equalled elsewhere in the North Island. Having a length of. 180 miles and a. breadth of CO miles, it is manifest that not much more than a nut-shell review is possible in these articles. The district's lrtVundiiry begins at the Pa tea river, runs in a northerly direction to the vicinity of Taumaranui; sweeps round the tnountainous region which accommodates the famous volcanic elevations of Tongariro, Ruapehu and Ngauruhoe; comes south and brings in the Main Trunk railway line, embracing such well-known points as Ohakune.. Taihape and Hunterville, and junctions at Palmerston North, from which locality the runs westward to the Pacific, so as to include all the foot of the North Island, which may be cut off by running a line from Wanganui, through Woodville, and to the sen. It will therefore be seen thrft every variety of territory is covered; the pumice of the volcanic area, rolling \lowns, agricultural expanses, spacious valleys and river flats, and the hilly and broken country which, after frowning over narrow gorges, crowds down to the Empire City itself. IN THE CROPPING AREA. The writer, coining from the east, struck into the district at that important stock and grain centre, Feilding. { After tra'velling northwards a short distance, there was presented a delightful picture of agricultural husbandry. If it had been famine time the rest of the island might have exclaimed; "There is corn at Feilding." From a point three and a-half milSs northward, one had at this harvest-time as fine a pastoral panorama as one would wish to see—a panorama of rolling land, fresh-cropped. These thousand stacks of golden grain—stacks and groups of stacks—on every hand showed up in sweet conspicuous yellow on the landscape. ''lt is dry," said a farmer; "very dry. The oat crops are light this year. The average'/ Ah, well, say 30 bushels to the acre." This was the burden of the .song only over a small area. Most others had better results to report, and one reliable informant pointed out a poddock, in the stook, from which 50 bushels to the acre were confidently expected. It was rather difficult to arrive at an estimate of the money value of this land which would average 30 bushel?, —often more and sometimes less—of oats per year. ''You see," said a farmer, "there is not much selling. The farmers know when they have a good thing." »So it appeared. Verily, and without provoking the language of a politician, they were a prosperous, contented people. But after persistent questioning, the value in a number of cases was set down at £2O per acre. One farm, now nsed for dairying, fetched £2O, and others are asking £3O per acre. It has been found that this manuka land after being cropped for a time needs to be put in in turnips and rape and grazed for a season or two. It is not all cropping. At Kakariki three years ago a cheese factory was started, and there is a strong impression that the industry will grow there. What is needed is the provision of green-stuff to be fed to the caftle as soon as the milk yield slackens. But this necessity .does not appear to have impressed itself. ,; It seems to me," said a supplier, "that a cow has a certain period during which to milk and she'll milk anyhow. All she wants here is plenty of water, and the grass as it is does very well then." If one were to judge from the small number who grow green-stuff the conelusion would be that a belief in the cow's "certain milking period" ] is pretty general. Kakariki dairy | farmers do not depend upon cows, and in years like the present, when chaff is high, the plough returns to favor. But it is a good grass country. Over the Rangitikei river the granary of the North Island still opens up expansively, and an old Government valuer was responsible for the statement that between , that river and the Wangaehu there arc 400,000 .acres of level and undulating' cropping laud. And the price?- "It's very dear here," said an agriculturalist as he watched his busy machinery; "it: runs from £25 to £3O an acre." Near by a traction engine, harnessed to two ploughs, went steadily on, turning over its passive burden of sweet earth. Still further north there was seriously given a more extravagant estimate of the average crops, taken year by year—4s to 00 bushels of oats, "'2,-> to' 4o bushels of wheat. Last year's wheat average for Wellington, according to the Government statistics, was 31 bushels, and oats 37 bushels. It is a good plan not to accent figures until after the threshing. A visitor to the district cannot but be impressed with the earth-sweet- atmosphere and. after touring Taranaki and Auckland provinces, with the air of contentment which generally prevails. The fever of land speculation has not entered the veins of the bulk of these agriculturalists, and one loses that sense of stress and change and sell and buy which has occurred over all territories where it has been found that tile Cow can be run on pastures which the Slice]) used formerly. The growing of grain has not lent itself to jumping land values. It is quite a different matter with tin 1 dairy fanner who in earlier d;iy.« fold his manufactured butler at 3d, 4d and Oil per lb—taking it out in stores and never seeing the color of money for his produce-but now .receives from Hid to Is per lb for his butler-fat. with the cheque ready for conversion into cash on the 28th of each month. Her Majesty has a lot to answer for.