LEADING FEATURES OP THE WHEAT INDUSTRY 197 



Statistics for those communities in which agricultural 

 pursuits play a prominent part are not available, and 

 these must be considered as a part of the whole land 

 district. Much of the land in both provinces is of such 

 a character as to be useful only for pastoral purposes, 

 and then only in large tracts. The areas above 1,000 

 acres are composed almost wholly of land such as this, 

 and this leaves the remaining lands, some 3,000,000 

 acres, with nearly 20,000 occupiers, giving an average 

 holding of 150 acres. The distribution of the holdings 

 throughout the groups can be discerned from the table, 

 and it will be noticed that considerably more than half 

 the holdings are less than 100 acres, while only some ten 

 per cent, lies above the 321-640 acre group. 



The average holding in an agricultural community 

 then being as small as 150 acres, we have gone a long 

 way towards the establishment of English agriculture 

 and intensive farming.* Under the New Zealand system 

 of mixed farming an area of from 100 to 200 acres is 

 ideally suitable for the application of intensive agri- 

 culture for the production of wheat. That such is the 

 tendency will be found after considering all the con- 

 ditions under which we are producing, but it is 

 necessary to indicate the nature and operation of each 

 factor in this direction as we study it. 



4. Labour. 



In Chapter III. the labour problem with reference to 

 wheat production has been discussed at some length. 

 Reasons were given for the necessity of a high degree 

 of skill on the part of the agricultural labourer, a degree 

 of skill which is not commonly found among casual 

 labourers. The prevalence of the idea that any kind of 

 workman is suitable for farm labour has added materially 



*As regards technique in agriculture we are already ahead 

 of English farmers. 



