GRAIN AND GRASS IMPROVEMENT.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 122, 25 May 1928, Page 17

GRAIN AND GRASS IMPROVEMENT.

DK, HHOBKDORF'B valuable WORK. TREMENDOUSLY IMPORTANT TO DOMEftON. (By StrjTDOWSffiß.) Quietly throughout the past seventeen years, one of the most important investigations front the Sew Zealand farmers' point of view has been going forward at' Canterbury Agricultural College under the capable direction of Dr. n. W. fiilgendorf, M.A., D.S.C-, F.K.2. Inst. In 1910 Dr. Hilgendorf was entrusted with the improvement by selection and breeding of the various varieties of Wheat which had already proved suitable to New Zealand Conditions. With the wonderful patience and perseverance to be found only in Men of Science, selection and cross-breeding of these plants has been carried on to the present day, when various superior and heavy cropping types have been evolved which are Mow almost exclusively sown by wheatgrowefti of the Dominion, and which have meant an enomtous increase in the production per acre over the old nondescript Varieties, Grass Improvement by Selection, Five years ago the improvement of our pasture grasses was taken in hand by the College, and the work which Dr. fiilgendorf and his assistants have already accomplished bids fair to greatly increase the production of our grazing lands. It has b»en found that grasses which we broadly class and think of as identically the same have an infinite number of variations according to the locality in which they are grown and ! Acclimatised, and that many, even in the Same-locality, have differences of growth and foHage, whldi make them almost distinct and sometimes valuable varieties. Thus some variations or types of cocksfoot, for instance, produced three or four times as much feed as others. Some are particularly frost or perhaps drought resistant. The same applies to almost all varieties of grass, ryegrass in one locality differing materially front that grown in another, and types in the ; some district showing immense adVantages over other plants growing nearby. The field of experiment has so far included the whole of the South Island, and as a result our Southern farmers | have every reason to hope that in a few I years' time they will have accurate data to guide them, not only in the varieties !or mixture of grasses to sow, but even the types of those varieties most likely in their particular surroundings to survive and produce the most abundant fodder. Native Grasses Await Improvement. With only five years or less of grass selection behind them, the "College" have already worked wonders, and it is natural that, so far, the grasses under experiment are what are known as the best English grasses. On much of our lighter grazing country these grasses are anything but permanent, and it is a debatable question whether it is not really waste of money sowing them at all on our poorer lands. As by far the greater area of the Dominion's grazing country is of second and third class quality, it is evident that improvement in grasses likely to thrive on this class of land would confer the greatest benefit on the country.

Some of our native grasses—various clovers, and particularly danthonia pilosa—have proved drought resistant, frost resistant, and fairly nourishing stock grasses. Would it net be possible, by selection, to improve these varieties until, while retaining their hardiness, they may compare in food value with the better-imported grasses. So far, of course, the Canterbury College has confined its experiments to the South Island, but now that the Massey Agricultural College has been established it is to be hoped that that most important branch Of investigation—the improvement by selection of pasture grasses— will receive the support it merits, and that the best procurable men, with ample funds at their backs, will be secured to aid the North Island farmers with their problems of greater production through pasture improvement.