OUR STAPLE INDUSTRIES

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 16, 13 July 1911, Page 3

OUR STAPLE INDUSTRIES

RURAL NEW ZEALAND UNDER REVIEW. No. 38. (By 11. J. EAMEiS). OTAGO AND SOUTHLAND. WHERE THE OAT CROPS GROW

First of all, in considering the immensity of Otago and Southland as the most important oat-growing district in New Zealand, it will be well to remember the great uncultivated area—the land still in tussock or native grass and un-. improved. Of the 22,000,000 acres still in that backward condition over the whole of the Dominion more than a third of that area (over S'/ 4 million acres) is in Otago and Southland, over 6% million acres of unimproved or tussock land being in Otago. In orchard and vineyard Otago makes a satisfactory showing when compared with other districts, hut Southland is decidedly backward. Not, 1 believe, that climate and soil are unsuitable, bo much as the idea of fruitgrowing has .not attached itself to the minds of the people. Under wheat there were, in 1010, 80,000 acres in Otago and Southland (with an average yield of 30 bushels to the acre) as against '210,000 awes in the great grain centre of the South Island—Canterbury (with an average yield per acre of 27 bushels). But in oats the extreme South holds pride of place. Last year it had 173,000 acres under that cereal, returning an average yield of 40 bushels, whilst Canterbury, its next nearest computitor, had 170,000 acres, with the lesser yield of 33 bushels. To put it in another way, Otago and Southland grew 0,920,000 bushels of the 13,804,000 bushels produced' in all New Zealand. In rye-grasa, too, Otago and Southland easily lead, for they produced no less than i,120,000 bushels out of the Dominion's total of 1,394.(>50 bushels. That cultivation has proceeded apace is further shown in the fact that 1,544,838 acres are do™ in grass or clover, sown after the land has been ploughed. But the principal cereal crop is oats, in the growth of which lx>th Otago and Southland excel. The yield averages from 40 to 80 bushels per acre, and it is officially estimated that the cost oi production is about the same as wheat, , namely, £2 per acre when grown from grass land, and £1 10s from stubble. It may be added that- tihe fertility of the soil has been greatly enhanced by the very wide application of limestone.

THE DAIRYING INDUSTRY. Perhaps the first, tiling that will strike an observer will be the fact that most farmers take it for granted that even in Southland dairy cows will do very we:! unrugged . Here and tliere herds and individual cows are protected by canvas covering, but that -is an exception. There seems to be nothing like a commercial agreement that it pays to keep the cows wotfhed during the cold weather they have to endure. The next point is that in quality of niilcli cattle there has not been an appreciably satisfactory progress. To the North Islander the absence of the Jersey (whose constitution is regarded down South ;us unsuiteil to the more rigorous climate) and the predominance of the Shorthorn cross are bound to attract attention. To illustrate the point Ox indifference as to quality: On the whole of the Taieri Plain, so far as the writer could ascertain, there waa only one farmer who was making a really sustained effort, by careful breeding and selection, to ouild up a first-class herd. For the purposes of his fancy he was crossing Shorthorns and Alderneys. On the other Jiand, there are somo special herds of Ayrshire cattle which liave mads the names of their breeders famous all over _\ew Zealand. If a map of Otago and Southland l>e taken, and a red mark placed at each point where a factory or creamery is established, the result is to show at a glance the well-defined strip of dairy country which runs along the cast coast from Oamaru to lnvercargill. Not that all the land suitable for dairying i 3 employed for that purpose; indeed, only a very small portion of it is so engaged. The most powerful of the concerns operating down South is the Taieri and Peninsula Co. This company began business over 25 years ago with its first creamery on the Peninsula, and the business has developed in such a way tliat associated with it now are (35 creameries, 5 cheese factories, and 2 main factories (one at Dunedin and one at Oamaru). The territory upon which theae operations are carried on covers 110 milea inj length. Practically every railway station | along the line is a point from which cream is drawn, and the system, in enabling farmers to curry on isolated dairy-> farming, lias naturally increased the quantity of home-separated milk, there being now, for instance, 30 home-separat-ing suppliers at Oamaru alone. In the matter of feeding their stock the southI em dairyman seems to have made further strides than bin northern brethren, and there is a widespread faith in mangels, which .they will tell you give more feed to the acre tna.n any other crop. Away down boh Lb, at Edendale, they have the biggest (or the second biggest, if Rivcrdalo has still progressed) cheese factory undca- one roof in New Zealand. The outpiit of IMendale-Brydone in 1009-10 wa« 010 tons of cheese, worth about £845,500. From the Southland district, for the year ended March 31, 1910, 79,101cwt. of cheese, valued at £207,382' was exported. The Otago figures are not given. From this general survev the real significance of dairying in the .South will be sufliteienibljr gathered. Every year new areas are being put under dairy cattle, with the result that from £l2 to £l4 per acre a lot of land has got past the £2O mark, and is still advancing. At Inchelutha—a prosperous butter-fat centre—£3s an acre is quoted. In the south-east corner of the Island, in tne vicinity of the Catlins river, three-acres-to-the-cow country is available at £l4 per acre. Of couise, on these lands the plough must be used, but in the judgment of experienced farmers whose advice has been sought dairy land in the South, acre for acre capacity, is lowpriced compared with the values obtaining elsewhere.