DEFICIENT COUNTRY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 227, 25 September 1930, Page 27

DEFICIENT COUNTRY.

NEW IDEAS AND METHODS OF HANDLING.

SETTLEMENT POSSIBILITIES

(Specially Written by ""Super.")

The difficulties of securing suitable land for closer settlement in the Dominion have led to concentration on the problem of handling country which is deficient in 'some respect. It seems likely that the increased production of the next decade will come mainly through improvements effected in the yielding qualities of our second-class land, and in the successful handling of country that at present is regarded as being worthless. The last ten years have witnessed a complete revolution in our methods of production, and seem a tremendous expansion in the use of fertilisers. "We have by no means reached the limit in that regard, for but a fraction of our sheepfanning country is as yet topdressed. but there are many would be settlers seeking land, and their hope lies rather in securing fairly large tract's of country now looked upon as useless —or nearly so—than in getting small areas of high-priced land. It is amazing to find that in a small country such as ours there is a wide variation in the types of deficiency which exist, but the further research work is carried in different" districts, the more it beeomes apparent that the troubles of one area differ—albeit often . very slightly—from those of other districts.

In North Island.

The reports presented to- Parliament each year by- tie various departments whose work is connected -with these deficiency problems give a very fair picture of the real position, and show clearly the advances that are being made in methods of working. For, many years the Agrieultnral Department has worked on areas in the Rotorua district, and has shown that the trouble there is due to an iron deficiency. It is possible to maintain stock in health by the feeding of citrate of iron, arid although thi3 is not easy, on sheep-farming country it does make it possible to farm country that would not formerly produce. This year's report on the work carried out shows that the Department realises thaf.present methods: are capable of improvement, and work. Is • g oin°- on to see whether the ploughlng-in of green crops or different systems of manurinowill -improve the position.. The >otifstanding point, however, according to Dr. Reakes, Director-General, is that by the use of citrate of iron from, time to time, combined with, good farming including proper and reasonable; fertilising and the maintenance of pas-turesMairy-fannfeg^can Jie' sucGessfuEi carried out on bash-sick eountry when the soil is otherwise suitable for dairying and t"he: rainfall sufficient. Moreover, he-stated recently that their experience indicated that year by'year, under .good farming practice, the soD conditions gradually improved. - ■• ! The.investigations Into deficiencies in the Kxng Country are not really as complete- bufc : they show thai the trerabk there is due not to a deficiency of iron but to a lack of lime and phosphates By correcting this, deficiency by. ■ dressings oi lime and superphosphate, farming Is made -more profitable. Eventually this work should open- up the way to much more -successful use. of the hill" country in the .vicinity of Te'Eoiti. - - In .practically every district in the jNorth Island there are areas which are gradually reverting .to poorer types of grass, and on which fern and. scrub- and second growth are gradually encroaching This -Is true of the- Bay of' Plenty Poverty ■"Bay., Hawke's -Bay, the Wa'irarapa, and Norti Auckland, for in everyone of those districts there is land which is not producing to capacity, or "which ha 3 definitely gone back during the last few years. No . one cause is responsible. In one case (the Waioeka land in the Bay of Plenty). the country when, felled seemed of the same type as the good land in Poverty Bay, but it rapidly reverted to scrub and second growth, and it was found that there was but a light covering of soil over papa. Had it been possible to. keep plenty of cattle on this land all would have been well r but' steepness prevented this, and so the unfortunate settlers have Ijeen victims of circumstances entirely beyond their control. Kb imore practical work can be accomplished than that which aims at making the useless country productive, or the secosd-class land capable of turning off larger, quantities of meat and wool and dairy-produce. In district after district experiments are showing that there is a Letter way to handle the land, and that greater returns > are possible, and it is for farmers to avail themselves of that knowledge. Is the South Island. The problems which confront farmers in the South Island are rather different in most cases, but no less interesting. Firstly there is a very large area there definitely deficient in lodine, where goitre in lambs is prevalent, and where stock do not thrive nor reproduce as well ae they should. In the Lakes country especially stock troubles are very bad, there being an almost entire absence of idoine in the soil. In Kelson the Cawthron Institute has shown that a deficiency of lime and phosphorus is responsible for the prpduction of xanthine calculi (stones) in the kidneys of sheep, a trouble that leads to a very high death, rate and makes profitable farming difficult. Eemedial treatment has been successfully carried out. , On the West Coast of the South Island there are thousands of acres or land known as "pakihr" land, which have really been lying idle. Much of this land is boggy and covered wflli moss. It has a springy feel underfoot, and it has been impossible in the past to get a sole of grasa on to it. again experiments at Cawthron have shown the way to its successful utilisation, and although further esperunental work js needed! it seems certain that a good many thousand acres will eventually be released for production. In the Canterbury district Lincoln College experiments clearly that by using lcwt of super phosphate witl/the wheat crop, average increase of 5 bushels to the acre^s gained, and that a further 5-^ hel frease can be seeded throagh the nse of nitrogen. The causes stock an also been the need for top-dressing certain gpes of country slightly deficient m phosphate , revealed. V -.■- '

This mass of work -which is carried out piecemeal throughout the Dominion welds itself into one complete whole when one looks broadly at the issues involved. It is a question of better utilisation of land already under grass, and of making it possible to farm country that at present is producing little or nothing. In all directions work is being carried out, and farmers should take a keen interest in that which refers to their own districts, as well as a general interest in the whole of the work. Much has been accomplished, but mueh remains to be done, and its success depends on the co-operation of the farmers themselves. i