GREAT CATTLE COUNTRY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 284, 23 April 1913, Page 4

GREAT CATTLE COUNTRY.

NEW ZEALAND'S GREATEST COMPETITOR.

Mr. Richard Reynolds addressed a meeting of tlie Waikato Farmers' Club at Cambridge last' week, dealing with the competition we are likely to meet with from the Argentine Republic, and comparing our Dominion with that country. This is a matter upon which Mr. Reynolds has had considerable facilities for gaining information, as not only has he lately paid an extended visit to the Argentine, but he has a son (Mr. W. Reynolds)- and a brother* (Mr. Henry Reynolds) settled there. He said the Argentine was undoubtedly the greatest competitor New Zealand had in the world's markets, and until he went there he had no idea of. the potentialities of the country. The land was extremely rich, and consisted mostly of immense > plains of flat land that would grow almost anything. The Republic was three-quarters the size of Australia, and twenty times as large as our Dominion. What struck him chiefly was the great amount of excellent feed that was given by alfalfa (lucerne), and the rapid manner in which stock developed upon it. One holding which he visited sent 15,000 head of fat cattle to the freezer in one year and another one 25,000; and when the animals were 18 months old they were fit for the market. They were reared upon their mothers and alfalfa i only, and were of the pvimest quality. Wheat was grown in great quantities; on one estate it had been grown for 17 years consecutively without any manure, and the fourteenth crop was the best of the lot. Maize was another product that received attention. Last year it returned £5,000,000. The rows of it were as straight as an arrow and appeared to be miles in length. He judged that Scotchmen must have planted it, for in no other country but Scotland did he see any crop planted so straight. Most of the water was supplied by windmills, of which there were many thousands; but the water obtained from the shallow wells, from 15 to 25 feet deep, although good for stock, was not fit for domestic use, it being somewhat brackish. -• If good water were required a depth of about 120 feet had to be pierced before that was reached. Those who went in for dairying found the shallow water did not suit their cows, and upon his brother's place some of them went wrong; but upon a supply from a deep well being secured they soon got all right again. Dairymen reared their calves upon skim milk, and with it and alfalfa the animals thrived well. The herds were immense and the animals were comparatively tame. One holding of 200 acres, down in alfalfa and maize, turned out 2000 head of cattle in & year. All breeds of cattle were repr-- , sented, and all did well; in fact, he never saw better in his life. If the Argentine were stocked up to its limit it could smother Australia and New Zealand, but fortunately for us it was developing slowly. In hia opinion it was the only country that was likely to be a competitor that New Zealand should fear.

Diseases were very rife amongst the cattle of the Argentine, anthrax, black leg and foot and mouth disease being the worst in the cattle, and scab in the sheep; whilst locusts and hailstorms, the latter only in certain small districts, did considerable damage to the crops. However, in time these would probably be remedied and some of them exterminated. The big ranchmen were satisfied to continue to act as graziers, so that it would probably be a long time ere the Republic became a serious opponent in the dairying l department. Referring to the price of jand, Mr. Reynolds said £lO per acre was a fair average price in the Argentine for land that would command £4O per acre in New Zealand; but at the present it was no place for a man without plenty of capital. Mr. Reynolds was satisfied New Zealand was the better country, despite the fact that it was double the distance away from Britain; and there was no place in which a young man could start and make a home in a short time so well as in New Zealand. Socially he could not recommend the Argentine. Many of the inhabitants were born gamblers, and in Buenos Ayres the streets were crowded at night with those who had been attending the gambling saloons. After his travels he had come to the conclusion that there was no place like New Zealand, and his concluding remark was, "We may well be proud of it."