9

C—9a.

In the Poverty Bay and East Coast districts, " Repongaere " should easily carry a cow to 2J acres. Average cost per acre over all (dairy portion), £2 15s. 6d. ; cost per cow, plus calves and pigs, £6 18s. 9d. " Glencoe " should carry a cow to ].| acres. Average cost per acre over all, £4 17s. 3d. ; cost per cow, plus pigs and calves, £6 16s. " Wharekaka " should carry a cow to 21 acres, and easily a cow to 2 acres when cleaned up. Average cost per acre over all, £2 Bs. Bd.; cost per cow, plus pigs and calves, £6 Is. Bd. A well-known gentleman at Tolago Bay told us that lie paid £55 per acre for 30 acres in this vicinity. He is paying a man £4 per week to milk cows on it, and it is paying him well. These comparisons show that dairy-land values are fairly consistent, throughout. The cows about Gisborne, we think are a better average lot than those in what is known as our " bush districts," and .-is the climate is much better throughout the whole east coast, the returns from them are much better. Cow men generally seem to think their returns would be about 2001b. to 3001b. butterfat pet- cow for the season. Butter factories throughout the Eawke's Bay Land District expect to pay out, with bonus, for season, Is. 6d. to is. Bd. per pound, tint! cheese-factories perhaps a, little more. We have just received the following information: On a dairy farm of 32 acres at Woodvillc a practical dairy-farmer has obtained for the season from fourteen cows a return of 3661b. butterfat pet cow. Off another at Woodville, conducted on practical lines, the owner has produced 3101b. butterfat per cow from fifty cows. At Te Rehunga a practical man lias obtained from a good herd of thirty-three cows running on 74 acres a return of 3051b. butterfat, for season. More and more as we moved about among the dairy farms did we realize the vast importance of the dairy industry to the Dominion, and know the necessity of keeping these men, who now have gained enough knowledge through hard experience where they are, by giving them whatever assistance is thought expedient, even though, it may look a serious charge on the country. It must be remembered that before the industrial world awakes in the morning these men and women have earned hundreds of thousands of pounds, and again in tin; evening when most other workers have finished for the day these toilers are just commencing to put together another supply of produce to keep humanity fed, and contribute their share to the revenue of the country. It has been truly said that the much-despised cow is the " mother of us all." What of the importance of the cow-tenders ? Sheep-farms. —It is very remarkable how nervous people are of having anything whatever of a definite nature to do with the " returned soldiers on the land " problem. We have interviewed a number of the leading men in the different localities, such as Dannevirke, Hastings, Wairoa, Gisborne, and. up the east coast, with a view to getting their ideas as to what an acre of land is worth that will carry a wet ewe. Verbally they will tell us that, in localities distant five or six days from a freezingworks, land that will carry a wet ewe should be worth £8 per acre minimum, whilst round about Hastings and Gisborne flats some of them consider land that will do the same thing to be worth £15. We have repeatedly asked them to write us on the subject, and though some of them promised to do so, up to the present we have not received a single letter. If, however, about £10 can be taken as a fair average to work upon, it will readily be seen that it is not the rents that are holding the men down. Take one ewe and her lamb as stores : Ewe, shears 8 lb. wool at lOd. £ s . d. per pound .. .. .. .. .. .. 068 90 per cent, of lambs are sold at 15s. per ewe .. .. .. 0 13 6 Making gross return of .. .. .. .. .. .. 10 2 Deduct shearing and marketing wool —say, per sheep .. .. 0 12 0 19 0 Land at 10s. per acre, deduct .. .. .. .. .. 0 10 0 Leaving a net profit of per ewe and acre .. .. .. .. 0 9 0 If we take the size of a farm at 500 acres this makes the net profit .. 225 0 0 This same country will need, say, one breeding-cow to 7 acres to keep it in order : Suppose they have sixty calves at £2 per head 120 0 0 Or a net profit over living-expenses of .. .. £345 0 0 Now let us take the same ewe and lamb fat: — Ewe shears 8 lb. wool at lOd. per pound .. .. .. .. 0 6 8 90 per cent, of lamb weighing 32 lb. at 9d. per pound .. .. 117 1 8 3 Deduct shearing and marketing expeoses, per sheep .. .. 0 12 1 7 1 Or 17s. Id. per acre profit for sheep. 500 acres at 17s. Id. per acre net would give the owner for the year 427 1 8 Say seventy breeding-cows with sixty calves at £2. . .. .. 120 0 0 Net return, not including living-expenses .. .. £547 1 8

2—C. 9a.