USE OF NEW LAND

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Volume 58, Issue 142, 18 July 1929, Page 11

USE OF NEW LAND

THE BREAKIXG IN PROCESS. CHEAP PUMICE AREAS. Not long ago the Minister of Lands stated that lie had been informed by a higli authority ' tliat it required an expenditure of £20 an acre to make pumice soils productive. This statement would naturally be taken by the ovdinary settler or laynien to mean that it would cost tliis amount to make such land yield anything for farming use and, in fact, this was exactly wliat a number of people believed* the statement was intended to convey. Naturally when a new settler or an old settler is informed witliout further explanation tliat it costs £20 an acre to make pumice soils capable of yielding or furnishing results, or giving tliem the quality or the power of prodiming, lie naturally assumes tliat witliout an expenditure of £20 an acre such soils cannot be iarmed, and lie just as naturally assumes that if this is the case it makes such soil entirelv impossible for settlement or commercial use, so far as farming is concerned. Obviously the statement was_ not complete, or was not reported in its complete sense, for it has been explained 6ince that tlie £20 an acre estimate was intended to cover the entire equipment of a farnr with fences, buildings, etc., and the complete improvement of the soil from its virgin state to pasture and crops after a term of years, and tlie development of its xiroductive powers to such a state that it is capable of carrying a dairy cow to about two acres. MEANING OF A TERM. Subh an explanation throws an entirely new light on the term "productive" and completely alters the commercial aspect of the case. It means even under the more special^ definition that such Jands instead of being expensive to utilise are extremely cheap and come easily within the bounds of prolitable^ settlement. There is, however,s' a difference betveen the- cost of turning a hundred, or a hundred and fifty acres into a fully equipped dairy farm and the cost_ of utiliRing' such lands in other agricultural oi* pastoral ways. Not every settler desires to become a dairy farmer and it may be explained that even under dairying it is not necessary to expend £20 an acre before returns can be had. A modest living could be obtained before half the farm was in cultivation ajid even before half the cultivated part had reached its .full development, and returns could be obtained to some ex'tent even during the first year of occupation and the first period of soil improvement. It is widely recognised now that pumice soils can scarcelv be equalled ariywhere for the cheap production of root-crons and clovers and that tlieir free and porous liature make them excellent Winter feeding grounds. The estimated cost per aCre for putting in a crop of turnips or swedes is about £3 and it costs about the same to sow red clover. An ovdinary crop •f turnips or swedes ' together with clover hay will fatten from twenty to thirty sheen per acre of tlieir equivalent in cattle.