FARMERS' DAY

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 48, Issue 77, 11 January 1928, Page 5

FARMERS' DAY

INTERESTING LECTURE. SEVERAL SUBJECTS DISCUSSED DEMONSTRATION OF EXPERIMENTS. A field day for the farmers of Canterbury was held in Ushburton to-day, when there was a large attendance from County and outside centres, together with several lecturers from the Agricultural Department. The movement was organised by the Fields Division of the Department (under the supervision of the Director, Mr. A. H. Cockayne).

In the morning, the rooms of the Ashburton A. and P. Association in the Arcade were utilised, and lectures were given there by Departmental officers, while in the afternoon demonstrations were given at the Government Experimental Farm. Mr H. C. B. Withell (president of the Mid-Canterbury Provincial Executive of the New Zealand Farmers' Union) presided over the morning session.

The .chairman said the large attendance showed the growing confidence that was "being displayed in the activities of the Department. Mr Cockayne discussed broad features of general Canterbury farming. The farming of this County was divided into two parts, one being dominated by the six-horse team or the tractor, while in the other the team or the tractor almost entirely disappeared. Grass farming had greatly increased of late years, furnishing the major of the feed required. To be adequateTt must be young, for old grass land meant store stock quality. Grass may remain young for many years or may rapidly become old. The farmer had to make constant provision .for the supply of fresh young grass. Top-dressing provided the outstanding feature of New Zealand farming in general, increasing by leaps and bounds, 250,000 tons of manures being applied to land to bring on the young grass. It "was only on certain Canterbury lands that there was a proper response, and grass renewal was a necessity. This meant cultivation, and the keeping of a team for this alone was far too expensive an item. As eroppfng,~To increase young grass, was of increasing importance, much care had to be given to this point. The annual crop was the pivot of Canterbury farm management. Accurate determination of manure requirements, the elimination of disease, and the clear realisation that the scrub crop must «o, were the three main features he wished to enumerate. So clearly did he see this that he had organised his Department in the nrovinre along these lines. Experts were working at each of these items, to bring forward processes practical from the farmers' standpoint. In the last few years valuable work had been done by two of the Department's officers, bearing greatly on the diseases brought about by wind born seed. Disease-free, pure and productive crop feed was essential, he added, to the renewal of productive young grass, which meant good stock country. To get at this they must follow out crop certification, and work was being carried, out along these lines. Progress was largely dependant on adequate grass land renewals, by closing up some of the leakages that caused failures. % was the sincere objective of the Department to direct its activities to knowing more about our cultural requirements, the elimination of disease, and the realisation that better material was necessary to produce good crops.

Disease Elimination. Mr J. C. Neill (Field Mycologist), who has been carrying out diseaseelimination experiments, said that investigatios a showed which were the best methcv'.s for use, but experiments were still being carried out. These methods \ver& those carried out by the farmers. It was shown that for one disease, copper carbonate was the treatment for v. heat, and formalin for barley and oats. Other diseases had other methods. There were many diseases that were not obvious to the untrained eye, and the present methods of pickling were of no use whatever in destroying, the evil. A sufficient trace of disease was usually left to carry on the disease to the next year's crop, so that pickling had to be carried out year after year. The conclusion had been arrived at that disease was carried by the seed from year to year, and the problem was 1 how to eliminate it. Experiments showed that hopeful prospects were offered', but that was different from getting the methods on to a commercial, basis. Results along some lines had been, astonishingly good, especially in barley in the Leeston district, where smut had been practically eliminated. The crops, too, had been greatly stimulated by the treatment. Only nucleus lines of seed could be thus treated, but the direction shown was that by treating a small crop, the product from it remained clean, and pickling need not be done, a good and clean crop being assured. If this success could be obtained with barley, then there was no reason why other cereals could not be cleaned up, so that in a few years farmers could be assured cf disease-free crops. The t many unknown diseases were taking heavy toll just now, but experiments went to show that cleaned crops would produce much better results in the future.

Pure Seed-Production. Mr J. W. Hadfield, who has charge of pure seed-production and crop certification, said it was not possible to have pure crops by selecting them. A pure line was selected, then it became a high yielding crop, and later a clean crop. Healthy lines remained healthy, and the diseased lines gradually petered put. A much quicker method, however, was crop certification, by which 100 tubers were sent in by farmers. These were planted and the vigorous, healthy crops shown up against the poor crop. Certification condemned the undesirable lines, giving greater sale to the better ones, so that those carrying disease were gradually eliminated. When pure lines were produced, they had to determine, under field conditions, what the value was, and only field conditions showed this accurately. About 150 varieties had been sent in and planted at the farm. Something about the general standard of New Zefbmd crops of potatoes was required. Hunters, and Solid Straw Tuscan, and the ootato crop of Lincoln (or once removed from

Lincoln) lines were the only ones being experimented with at present. Mr Hadfieid went on to give details of what the Department would do regarding the sealing of varieties of seed alter experiments had been made and they had been certified as pure. • Crop Experimentation.. Mr A. W. Hudson, who has charge of field experimentation, said this work was the only satisfactory method of arriving at definite results. He pointed out tnat while a certain manure was a success in ono country it did not follow that it would be successful in; another. Experiments were what were wanted to tell whether the manure was good or otherwise. It was a question of Nature, and Nature never lied, though man may .misinterpret the. an- 1 swer. Mr Hudson went on to detail the seasonal differences desired by the use of the same type of manure, pointing out the care that should be taken, in. the work. Uniformity of conditions, were aimed at as far as possible-, this ■■ being one of the many disturbing factors that are met with in the exuerimental work, the methods of which were, just as important as the results. It was: far better to do a little work well than to do a lot of work and have no confidence in the results. Every farmer, he said, should be an experimenter on his own. This work tras always well worth while, adding some zest to the work. The attacking of problems of general fertilisation was the type of work essential to an experimental farm, and the preliminary trial of varieties was very desirable. Co-operative experiments were being carried out in seven farms in the Province, extending from Waimate to the Ayr district, nitrogen and potash being used in the work; so that in a few years' time* definite results will probably be available. An experiment in itself was of no value; it was only valuable as a, serial in a number. The germination and control of smut on wheat were also being closely followed \ip ohf'the. plots under ordinary farming conditions.

Mr F. R. Callaghan (of the Department of Scientific Research), said increased production seemed always to bring a host of troubles through disease, and the importance of qtiality was just as important as quantity. .It had been stated that the eonsumptiom of bread had fallen off lately, antf this was being traced back to the farmer. Then arose the question: What was the cause of this fall in quality P Only) field research could find this out. His Department had suggested a form of-co-operative research, and something was bping done through the new laboratory in Christchurch, which would probably commence operations with the present season's t vops. The harvesting and general care of gathering the crops held problems hardly known yet, for there were so many influences on seed production. It was hoped, therefore, that the work done at the laboratory would be of great value to the farmer in increasing the quality of the - crop production,. Agricultural problems were gaining greater value, and he was sure the farmers would be impressed by what was being done at the farm by the Department's officers. Greater technique would give slower, but'more valuable results, he added. They had to go through tedious work, as it would in the end be of considerable use to the farming community. The Chairman said the lectures had been full of interest, ami there was no doubt the interest in the Department's ;\ ork arose out of the fact that the Department had o fire class of man at work on experiments, A vote of thanks to the speakers was moved by Mr W. T. Lill, and was carried by acclamation. , Mr Cockayne expressed pleasure at having been able to address the gathering.

AT THE FARM. . AN INTERESTING AFTERNOON. At the Experimental Farm this afternoon the farmers spent a very interesting and instructive four hours. They were divided into groups and taken, round the various plots by the lecturers of the morning. Among the plots dealing with the elimination of disease Mr Neill showed four plots extending for about 200 yards each, in "which wheat and oats were growing. They were in rows, each of which contained 100 plants, thd seeds having beem sown by hand at intervals cf two inches. In these plots the seeds had been treated in nearly 800 different ways. Thus, the successive rows showed the variation of the quantity of smut according to the treatment used. Here and there Mr Neill showed how the smut was being controlled. Diseases among barley were then shown, and the methods in use in an endeavour to eliminate the smut were fully explained. The next olots shown were some oats giving the effects of the use of hot water to soak the sf eti before sowing. The water was at temperatures two degrees apart. In this way the lower temperatures failed to control the smut, while the use of a tomperatnre of about 141 degrees showed signs of interference with the germination and giving a stunted growth. At temperatures of from 131 to 133 the best results were noticeable. Somewhat similar results were seen in wheat plots. Among the potato plots Mr Hadfield held interest for an hour, explaining what is being done with plants sent in by farmers for certification. In one place he pointed out plants which obviously showed the trouble which arises out of sowing diseased seed with healthy seed. An interesting explanation of the manner in which stunted and diseased seed are distributed was given by Mr Hadfield. He showed how diseased seed produced stunted plants that were capable of producing - tubers fit only for seed (as far as size is Concerned). These were sold as seed and so the disease was spread in the next season when they were planted.