OUR STAPLE INDUSTRIES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 334, 22 June 1911, Page 3

OUR STAPLE INDUSTRIES.

RURAL NEW ZEALAND UNDER REVIEW No. 3,->. [All Eights Reserved.] (By K. J. EAMES). " PRIME CANTERBURY." SOIL THAT NEEDS FEEDING. In many parts of New Zealand agents and speculators and others interested in tile inflation of land values preserve a studied silence upon the need for feeding the soil. But throughout Canterbury, although the average farmer shrinks at first from the expenditure of hard cash, there is a fairly general recognition that the soil requires nourishment, and that artificial manure imparts to a farm a greater nett earning - power capacity. Still it is not every day that one meets a farmer who makes the satisfied declaration: "I manure my land because the profit, after a manure expenditure, is greater than the profit would have been if there had been no manuring at all." After a scientific analysis of soil constituents, certain declarations have been made to which the fullest publicity should be given. In an official report, referring to soil exhaustion, Professor Alexander said: "To put it very plainly, when the pastoralist sells 100 lambs (assuming their average weight to be 801bs) he sells as much nitrogen as he can buy in 14cwt. dried blood; as much phosphoric acid as he can buy in sewt. superphosphate (40 per cent.), as much potash as there is in lewt. kainit and lewt. lime. For every COO gallons of milk the dairy farmer sells there is a loss to the farm of nitrogen equal to 3>4cwt. dried Wood, phosphoric acid equal to COlbs superphosphate, potash equal to 80lb| kainit, and lOlbs lime." It is the business of the analyst to speak with authority regarding the producing capacity of soil, and a Lincoln College scientist, after examining 26 samples of soil, declared that in comparison with the Rothamstead wheat plot, on which wheat had been grown continuously for 57 years, "an analysis 6hows that there is not much margin to work on in the Canterbury soils." This opinion is not quoted as showing a marked inferiority in Canterbury soils, for good farmers in other parts of New Zealand will realise that the judgment might have been passed with equal justice upon a number of other territories between the North Cape and the Bluff. But the recognition of weakness is the first step towards strength and applied agricultural chemisti— in Canterbury is restoring the soils which have suffered impoverishment by continuous cropping, sheep-grazing and dairying.

VALUE OF LAND. Right through the middle of the South Island there runs a rugged backbone which sends out mountainous spurs at all points down the Canterbury land' district. In common with other parts of New Zealand the valleys which occur between the numerous range? are constantly increasing in productive capacity. Ai the same time the enormous area under leasehold has not made anything like the best conceivable progress. The barren wastes of the mountainous regions represent the neutral value point, hut as the land drops to the hills a sound grazing value is created, which value grows immeasurably greater as the hills become undulating land and finally drop to those expansive plains which have made the name of the district famous. But beyond what has already been said with regard to land values, no very helpful idea can be conveyed. To say that land on the plains may be had from £fl to £OO per acre (some lower than the former and some higher than the latter figure) will, however, suggest to prospective buyers the necessity for close personal inspection. In Canterbury the selling value of "the farm next door," so to speak, is not much of a guide. Besides t.he pastures and the wide variety of crops above and below ground, there is an abiding faith in the ultimate success of the fruit industry, the present area in gardens, orchards and vineyards being, approximately, SOOO acres. The intenser farming made possible by the water-race system, and which developed naturally and as a matter of course, lias lowered the price of land, hut values throughout Canterbury, as compared with other parts of New Zealand, cannot be said to be at all exorbitant. This comment applies to the territories right down to Timaru, around which shipping centre there lie those fine agricultural and grazing areas to which reference has already been made. THE DAIRY INDUSTRY.

One might suppose that the district which is the greatest wheat centre in New Zealand, and which produces mutton and lamb which commands the highest price on the London market, would be content to rest on these laurels. But a glance at the district shows that the dairy cow is evefy year making her presence more profitably felt. The splendid' valleys of the Banks Peninsula (famous as a nursery for cocksfoot seed) arc constantly being put to fuller use in the production of butter-fat, and elsewhere, throughout the whole land district, a general increase in the industry is observed. This year, for instance, there will probably he produced £175,000 worth, of butter, notwithstanding that the season has been the driest on record for many years. Had the weather conditions of other seasons prevailed that total would have been largely increased. So with cheese, of which this season's make will possibly return £29,000. Of course these figures would be made to appear very small if a comparison were made with those provinces in which the dairying industry is the chief, or one of the chief sources of wealth. But standing alone they show what a very valu-' able side line Canterbury has in butterfat. By far the greater part of the butter and cheese is manufactured under co-operative management. Of the i 1800 tons or so of butter to Canterbury's credit this year some 1000 tons were turned out by the Canterbury Central Co-operative Dairy Co., which has its headquarters at Addington, and whose skimming stations serve the dairy farmers over a large area of country. The distances operated over have noticeably increased the use of the home separator, which makes it practically possible for many out-of-the-way fanners, with areas suitable for the cow, to become factory suppliers and increase the output of the province. A number of the bigger suppliers are installing machinery, and altogether there is a general extension of the industry—an extension which promises to become more marked as time goes on. But this great middle part of the South Island will never be regarded as the country of the Cow. Its traction engines and its ploughs, its singing threshing machines, its chafTcutters, and its bursting granaries must, it seems, remain vitally progressive -with the district; but over and above that there is , the frozen meat industry, which has done, so much for the, province and for New Zealand, the million carcases of mutton and lamb whicu have attached to the province its chief association and commercial sentiment: Prime Canterbury.