38 WHEAT PRODUCTION IN NEW ZEALAND 



(a) Indirect. New Zealand farming is characterised 

 by its peculiar suitability for mixed methods, and this 

 is especially true of the wheat producing area under 

 investigation. Experience has shown that in this area 

 no one method of farming is sufficient. Sheep farming 

 is very profitable for a few years; but the pastures 

 sooner or later lose their vitality. The farmer is then 

 faced with the difficulty of producing fresh grasses, 

 which are found to thrive best after a short period of 

 cropping. Moreover, in the provision of adequate winter 

 forage a sheep farmer is often placed in difficulty. For 

 instance, in a dry season farmers who have been relying 

 solely on their pasture for winter feed, are sadly 

 disappointed, and are compelled to sell considerable 

 quantities of their stocks very often at a loss. On the 

 other hand close adherence to agricultural pursuits is 

 likely to prove no less a failure. Examples of failure 

 in this method of farming are not wanting in New 

 Zealand; and the farmer who is found after a com- 

 paratively short period of years with an outcropped 

 farm is not altogether uncommon. 



Experience thus shows that the mixed method of 

 farming in Canterbury is the most profitable; not only 

 this, but we are learning year by year that this region 

 is specially adapted to mixed farming. Wheat pro- 

 duction is fostered by an excellent soil, and by a good 

 and systematic rotation of crops the whole area provides 

 excellent grazing land for both cattle and sheep. More- 

 over, the growth of root crops for winter feed is 

 beneficial to both agricultural and pastoral pursuits, 

 in that it is an excellent preparation for soil for wheat 

 and oats, and furnishes good fattening material, which, 

 along with hard pastures is responsible for the world- 

 wide famous "Prime Canterbury" mutton and lamb. 



(b) Direct Fertilisers. In many parts of the wheat 

 producing area of New Zealand the virgin fertility of 

 the soil has been somewhat impaired. But for the past 

 decade continuous cropping has been by no means the 

 universal practice of the New Zealand farmer, as it 

 has been in other new countries, notably in the United 



