POTATOES BOUGHT

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 59, Issue 133, 18 March 1939, Page 5

POTATOES BOUGHT

BIG PURCHASE IN AUSTRALIA. SHIPMENT TO NEW ZEALAND. DELIVERY IN THE WINTER. (United Press Association —Copyright.) (Received This Day, 11.25 a.m.) SYDNEY, This Day. The Sydney “Daily Telegraph” says that New Zealand potato merchants have bought 1500 tons of Australian potatoes. The price paid is £9 5s a ton on rail at Ballarat, Victoria. The purchases have been made for May, June, July and August deliveries. Application is being made to the Now Zealand Government for permission to import potatoes from Australia. The “Telegraph” adds: “The purchase is an ironical comment of the Commonwealth Government’s ibelated decision to lift the ban on the import of Now Zealand potatoes.

LOWER CANTERBURY YIELD. (Special to the “Guardian.”) CHRISTCHURCH, March 17. A considerable reduction in the size of the potato crop of North and MidCanterbury is predicted, according' to the fields superintendent of the Department of Agriculture (Mr R. McGillivray). In a number of districts in North Canterbury, Mr McGillivray said, where farmers had been trying to discover what their yields would be, disappointment had often resulted from trial diggings. Those .who had lifted 12 tons to the acre last year might be lucky if they took six or seven tons, off the land this year. Paddocks of slightly better quality adjoining land, from which between nine and 10 tons had been lifted, would only yield about five or six tons to the acre this season. Where crops had been planted late, , and because of bad weather a large proportion of seed had been sown later than usual, they were certain to show a very large percentage of small potatoes. It was doubtful if theyield of average sizie table potatoes would exceed three or four tons to the acre in such crops.