TOP DRESSING THE HILLS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 53, 4 March 1925, Page 13

TOP DRESSING THE HILLS.

IMPORTANT DEPARTMENTAL

SCHEME.

EXPERIMENTS AT MAXAWATU.

(From Our Oini Correspondent.) PALMERSTON NORTH, Monday. "The people have just awakened to the fact that the land is going back, whereas it has been gradually deteriorating for many years," stated Mr. J. W. McGulloch, Instructor in Agriculture at Palmerston North, when speaking to a reporter yesterday upon the subject of topdressing hilly country.

'It is time we put back a little of what we have taken from it. Every year there has been a crop of something taken away, and this has robbed the soil of its fertility. We send the cropswool, mutton, or whatever they may be —overseas, and put back nothing on the land."

A scheme had recently been inaugurated, and experiments were at, present being_ carried out throughout the Wellington province from Wellington to the Rangitikei and southern Hawke's Bay, under which farmers in certain parts were being assisted by the Department of Agriculture to top "dress some of the hilly country on their farms with manure, in order that an accurate conception may be gained as to whether the work is profitable or otherwise.

Arrangements had been made, stated Mr. McCulloch, to have 1000 acres in this district set aside in plots of 50 acres each, so that the Department can decide whether to recommend the principle to farmers.

"We know that the land will be better," he continued, "but the great question is whether the cost of the work will be countered by the increased return which the farmer will derive. It i's impossible at the moment to go into figures, but even if a man increases the capacity of his land by half a sheep to the acre— and that is a conservative estimate in many cases —it would pay. On account of the land being inaccessible with a machine, the manure would have to be laid by hand, and this naturally increases the cost. Labour is the big problem, and the Department is anxious to have a tangible result. "It is possible that land may take more than one year to reach its highest capacity, but if an improvement is noticed at the end of the first twelve months, many farmers will be pleased, for> this must necessarily mean an increased output. "An odd man or two has come along and said that he has put manure on his hilly land and has noticed an improvement, but the Department has launched this scheme on a comprehensive scale ■with a view the cost. It will be twelve months before any appreciable, results will be available."

Mr. McCulloch continued that fanners were only now realising what this was to mean to them, for, although the land that had originally not been covered with bush could not have gone back, the parts which had been cleared and sown had been bled until they were on a gradual downward trend. If arable land had to be topdressed, then it was a matter of reason that something of the sort would have to be done on the higher levels. .• .