A REVIEW OF THE CAWTHRON INSTITUTE'S WORK ON PASTURE DEVELOPMENT ON PAKIHI LANDS

IN THE EARLY DAYS of European settlement on the West Coast, high hopes were held for farming on the pakihi lands, for here was land with no forest to be cleared before development to pastures. All that was required to gain pastoral land was to drain the swamps, sow seed and maybe some fertilizer. How right this proved to be; but the problems of drainage were not anticipated. With a high water-table perched on an impervious humus-iron pan and negligible lateral or surface drainage, the task proved discouraging to say the least, and after initial abortive attempts most of the land was abandoned by farmers.