HIGH-PRICED LAND.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 January 1920, Page 6

HIGH-PRICED LAND.

CAN IT BE JUSTIFIED! THE £IOO AN ACRE FARM. "A farm of just over 60 acres on the western border of the borough of Ha•wera sold the other day at £2OO an acre —a record." Few will be disposed to challenge the allegation that;, it is a record. But to those who are sceptical in regard to these high prices being made remunerative the exceptional d&iryiug qualities of Taranaki land are as a rule imperfectly realised. Paragraphs have appeared from time to time showing conclusively that small, wellequipped dairy farms were good propositions at up to £BO an acre before the day of high prices, and the increase in produce prices naturally enhanced land value iu proportion. However, £2OO an acre appears just "over the edge." But good herds, and, it must be remembered, small highly improved farms, where there is a sufficiency of buildings, have shown satisfactory returns on £IOO an acre land.

The genial climate of the North Island and the fertility of its soils enable cows to be kept largely on pasture all the year round. There is no housing of dairy herds, no expensive hand feeding, no provision has to be made to store food for a long, hard winter. Even where winter feed is provided it is cLiefly in the shape of inexpensive root crops which the cows feed off themselves, and hay, which is generally served in the paddocks. The expensive cakes and meals and other concentrated foods so necessary in Europe and North America are practically unknown in New Zealand. It is recognised now that with butter-fat at Is <Jd per pound a capaore farmer can make a good profit out of land at' £IOO an acre.

Dairying land is valued largely according to its carrying capacity (says an instructive article in a northern paper). If land will carry a cow to three acres it may sell at from £2O to £3O per acre, according to its situation. If two acres will run a cow £4O to £SO an acre is a common price. To reach £IOO an acre land has to carry about a cow to the acre. But there are plenty of dairy farms in New Zealand selling today "at much lower prices than these, and plenty of land which an energetic farmer can turn into dairying land at from £lO to £2O ajuacre. It can be taken for granted that in New Zealand, as elsewhere, men do hot pay High prices for land unless they can get something out of it, and moreover it is generally recognised that the farmers on the high-est-priced land are averagely more prosperous than those on the lowest-priced land. Not only is the land better, but usually it is farmed better and carries better 'stock. The rtturns from dairying in New Zealand naturally vary according to the price of butter-fat and to the class of cow kept and the character of the soil.

The price of butter-fat varies according to the district and the management of the dairy factory. In isolated districts where suppliers are few and scattered it may run from 19 4d to Is Od per lb. In well-established districts where suppliers are numerous and factories large, and particularly ni ere dried milk and casein and similar products are made, it ranges from Is fid to over 2s per lb., and it is estiranted that where the industry is highly organised even 3s per lb. may yet be realised. It has been estimated that the average cow in New Zealand yields about £l2 per year from butter-fat alone—that without reckoning the returns from calves and skim-milk. But there is as much difference in the yield of cows as there is in the yield of land, an-1 perhaps more. There are many herds in New Zealand yielding an average of £2O to £25, and even more, per cow, and plenty of individual cows yielding £SO to £6O from butter-fat alone. It is, however, more a question of returns per acre which fixes the value of land, and in this respect it may be said that in really good districts £2O to £25 per acre per year is not an exceptional return, and £27 and even more has been obtained. Now, on returns like these, people can figure out for themselves whether dairying will pay on land at £IOO an acre. After all, £IOO per acre only represents a rental of from £5 to £o' per year.