Agriculture. 293 
to, seemed to offer an insuperable barrier to agricultural advance. But, with 
increase of population, and, before all else, with the practical application of 
certain scientific discoveries, the markets of the world have been brought, as 
it were, to the very door of the most distant lands, so that from the end of 
‘the eighties, in the case of New Zealand, agriculture has advanced by leaps 
and bounds. No longer did wool form the mainstay of the industry but the 
production, first of meat, and later of dairy produce, became of prime impor- 
tance. The small farm, which hitherto had provided a scanty livelihood, 
became a paying concern, the demand for land increased and still increases, 
so that such thought to be of no value, or impossible to “reclaim”, now yields 
an abundant harvest, while, above all, certain forest-lands have been converted, 
at but little cost, into the richest of dairy-farms. Another formation that 
possessed great agricultural capabilities was the swamp, and this early on 
through drainage, ploughing and sowing with meadow-grasses, was transformed 
into pasture quite foreign to the soil. Some swamps, however, were too vast 
for private enterprise to deal with, but even these are now being subdued by 
aid of the State. So it comes about that only certain plant-formations remain 
- comparatively undisturbed, especially, — the pumice and gumland’s heath, 
forests too far distant or in too wet a climate for profitable occupation, much 
of the dune-area and the herb-field of the Southern Alps. But all these, too, 
are being slowly occupied, so that the time is not far distant when the hole 
of New Zealand, save the most inhospitable and rugged portions, together 
with the National Parks and similar reserves, will be subservient to the will of man. 
The land now being utilized for agricultural purposes falls into the two 
main classes of arable and grassland, while this latter must be subdivided into 
natural and artificial pasture. The last-named, again, comes into the two cate- 
gories of ploughed and unploughed. Speaking phytogeographically, the arable 
land and ploughed grassland represent primeval swamp, alluvial steppe, lowland 
hill-side steppe and to some extent forest and even heath, while the unploughed 
grassland is, for the greater part, rain-forest converted into pasture by the 
method hei in the last chapter. The natural pastures represent the 
original steppe at all altitudes now considerably modified by the reduction in 
number of certain indigenous species, the increase of others and the presence 
of many foreign plants especially, Hypochoeris radicata and Rumex Acetosella. 
The following statistics as to the area occupied by the above classes in 
1912 are of importance: — ı. Land under crop, 1,729,504 acres’). 2. Ploughed 
grassland 5,000,226 acres. 3, Surface-sown(unploughed) grassland 9,214,515 acres, 
4. Natural grassland about 59 p. c. of the area. 
The crops grown are those usual in a temperate climate, except in the 
N. where subtropical plants are cultivated to a limited extent. The most 
important of temperate products are cereals, of which oats occupying 386,786 acres 
and wheat 189,869 acres are of far the greatest moment. Of lesser importance 
1) Throughout this chapter the metric system is not used; ı hectare = 2.47 acres, 
