LAND, STOCK & CROPS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 53, Issue 14, 27 October 1932, Page 7

LAND, STOCK & CROPS

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

(By “The Tramp.”) Following is the second article of the report on the certification of grass seed released by the Department of Agriculture:— Certain approved areas in Hawke’s Bay and Poverty Bay are eiiguiie for entry into tiie permanent pasture class. Tne produce of these areas receives special consideration because the bulk of it would undoubtedly be classed as mother seed were it not for the absence of a type report. As explained later, sued seed is described as Y seed. Alter machine-dressing it' is sealed and tagged as permanent pasture and a sample drawn for immediate test to determine type purity. On the result of this trial will depend whether the seed remains as permanent pasture or is elevated to mother seed. The permanent pasture tags on Y lines are stamped to indicate that the seed is under test and subject to reclassification. Owing to the care attending field inspection very lew of these lines are not eventually tagged and sealed as mother seed. Areas eligible for inspection are as follow: —1. Any area rejected on type report is not permitted entry unless a later report indicates a satisfactory standard. 2. An area rejected at held inspection may be re-entered provided it has not been rejected also on type report. 3. Any area sown with mother seed is eligible for entry in the peimanent pasture class for the first harvest without the necessity of a type report. 4. Certain approved areas in Hawke’s Bayl and Poverty Bay, which are 5 years old or over, may be entered in the permanent pasture class (Y lines)." 5. Any other area to be eligible for entry must have had a sample therefrom tested and reported upon as of certification standard. For purposes of certification it is necessary to have some basis upon which to compute the age of a pasture. Areas sown during the first six months of the year are deemed to have been autumn sown, and those sown during the last six months as spring sown. The age is computed as the number of harvest seasons through which the pasture has passed. Thus areas sown in the autumn of 1932 and the spring of 1932 respectively will be of the same age (i.e., one year old in the 1933 harvest and five years old in 1937). An area sown in the spring of 1932 (e.g., November, 1932) will be one year older than an area sown in the autumn of 1933 (e.g., February, 1933). Every farm producing certified seed receives a registered number. A plan of the farm is prepared, and letters allocated to the individual paddocks. Plans are prepared in triplicate, one copy being held by the farmer, one by the Instructor; while the third is filed in the office of the Fields Superintendent in whose district the farm is situated.

If a grower purchases and sows field-dressed seed the area sown can enter certification only by means of a satisfactory trial report on the first seed harvested from that area. Should field-dressed seed he sufficiently pure as in the opinion of the owner, not to warrant machine-dressing, he should make application to the Agricultural Instructor for a sample to be drawn for purity and germination test. Should the seed attain the necessary standard of purity it may be sealed and tagged as fully certified and be deemed as having been machinedressed.

On application the Agricultural Instructor will attend at the di'essing statioix to identify the sacks, to remove the seals, and permit xnaclhnedi'essing. This officei' will take the inward weights of field-dressed seed and the outward weights of machinedressed seed. He will inspect the dressing returns and if necessai’y weigh the dressings to satisfy himself that there has been no possibility of error. He will supply- the requisite number of tags and insert slips and seal the sacks. To avoid admixture of one line by another the dressing plant should he run empty for fifteen minutes between one line and the next. When the dressing of any one line is completed the officer will draw a representative sample from top, centre and bottom of each sack, and after mixing this thoroughly, send the requisite quantity direct to the Seed Analyst for a purity and germination test. This sample is used also in conjunction with the field-dressed sample for type report. A purity and germination certificate embodying the results of the test is forwarded direct to the owner of the seed. Such certificates form a compulsory feature of ryegrass certification. Blending is permitted but tlie method adopted must have the approval of the Departmental officer and ensure the complete mixing of the component lilies. Should hints of different classes be blended, the blend will he tagged as the lowest class of seed represented in that blend. Thus a mother seed and permanent pasture seed blend would be tagged as permanent pasture. If lines are blended after machine-dressing the officer will take the weights of each line comprising the blend and remove and destroy the seals, insert slips and tags. After blending the seed will be i'esealed and tagged, and a fresh sample drawn for a purity and tion test.

As used here the term, “lines of seed,” implies that all the seed in that bulk is of the same origin. It may be a straight line originating from one paddock or a blended line consisting of two or more' straight lines. In all cases one line of machine-dressed seed is covered by one purity and germination certificate. The samples of field and machine-di-essed seed drawn at threshing and machine-dressing respectively form the material upon which type reports aie furnished. Two methods are employed m determining type. In one the samples are sown in small plots with adjoining controls; in the other a determination is made of the percentage of germinating seeds which fluoresce under screened ultra-violet ray.