LEADING FEATURES OF 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. 
