IRRIGATED LAND.
INCREASE IN PRODUCTION. SOME STRIKING RESULTS. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Wellington, Last Night. In the Public Works statement par. ticulars are given of the effects of irrigation on the land as obtained from actual figures supplied by the farmers on Government irrigated land, and some on land irrigated by private schemes. One man grew 400 tons of lucerne on 80 acres of irrigated ground, and with 350 tons of this fodder he wintered 5,000 sheep, 75 cattle, and 20 horses. With the aid of the pasture on irrigated land he was able to sell 4.900 fat sheep from a property which had never previously been able to turn out 'a single fat sheep. Another settler brought in a private scheme casting £2O per acre, and was then able, on 100 acres of land which previously was drifting sand of no value, to winter 3.300 sheep as well as horses and cattle; and in addition, in the month of February, he held 2,000 sheep and fattened 300 wethers. Figuiies of this description must carry conviction to the most sceptical. Another man, before irrigation, on a little over 300 acres, grazed 100 sheep and fattened 80. He now grazes 600 sheep and fattens 400, and estimates that his land has increased in value five-fold. Another, before irrigation, sold 250 fat sheep and 13 bales of wool per annum. He now sells 1,200 fat sheep and 35 bales of wool; and; further, he estimates that the wool off irrigated land is 21bs. or 31bs. per sheep heavier and fetches 3d. to 4d, per lb. more as compared with adjoining unirrigated land. Another man who previously sold no fat sheep and four bales of wool, now' sells 980 fat sheep and fifteen bales of wool. The increase in the carrying capacity of the land actually irrigated is estimated as increasing from between one-sixteenth and one-quarter of a sheep per acre up to figures ranging between 2 and 10 sheep to the acre. As a means of arriving at the production investigations were made as to the number of sheep and other produce sent away from the stations which serve the principal irrigated areas, and it is found that the average weight of goods between 1908 and 1914 was 1,885 tons, and since that period 4,395 tons; the average of the last year was 5,170 tone.
The sheep exported in the six years prior to 1914 averaged 40,345, since that date 52,500, and last year 00,034. Only about 11 per cent, or the land which might be irrigated is now irrigated, and yet the increase as shown by last year’s output as compared with the pre-irrigation average shows: cattle, 35 per cent., sheep, 49 per cent., grain, chaff, and wool, 10S per cent. The average enhancement in landvalues per acre estimated by a number of owners is £6 7s 6d., after making due allowance for the cost of the watersupply. This amount is much less than the enhancement estimated by the Government officers, but naturally the owners would be cautious in estimating the values, particularly as there was no question at the time of their selling. Taking, however, the farmers’ values of enhancement, and capitalising the water-rents receivable, we find that in the case of the Ida Valley scheme we have an asset worth £226,825 from an expenditure of £160,000.. If extremely conservative values adduced by the Department’s officers from actual crop and flock returns be taken, the national asset is really £281.146 from the expenditure of £160,000. If all the schemes now under construction or already constructed, be pooled, and the same basis of argument be used on the farmer’s estimate we will have a Dominion asset of £498.310 from an expenditure of £370,000. ar. on the Department’s figures, £619.846 from the same expenditure. All the above values are adduced from sheep-farming oprations almost entirely, but the real future of a considerable amount of the irrigated land lies in the development of dairying, and when the change is brought about—and it can be only brought about by irrigation and subdivision—then the results will be such as could only be believed by persons who have actually seen the country both before and after irrigation.
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Taranaki Daily News, 18 October 1922, Page 5
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700IRRIGATED LAND. Taranaki Daily News, 18 October 1922, Page 5
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