"COOL AGAIN."

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 182, 4 August 1939, Page 8

"COOL AGAIN."

PLEASANT CHANGE.

UNITED STATES WERE HOT.

PRAISE FOR MT.Z. FARMING

"Well, it's quite good to get a little cool weather again. We suffered in a terrific heat wave in the States—and. believe me, 118 degrees in the shade is just no joke/' So said Mr. Ira E. Sewell, New Zealand representative of the J.I. Case Company, manufacturers of tractors and farm implements, when he arrived by the Monterey from San Francisco this morning. He was accompanied by Mrs. Sewell and their small son, and Jias been on a four months' tour of the United States in connection with business. An American by birth, Mr. Sewell has been a resident of Christchureh for majiy years. "I'm mighty glad ,to be back home again in New Zealand," he said to-day. During his tour he travelled through the whole of Canada. going south to the United States through Dakota, Minnesota and Kansas before travelling down through Texas and Old Mexico and leaving from California. Thwarting Dust Storms. He was particularly interested in the new methods of farming that had been adopted in the "dust bowl" in Southern Saskatchewan — a scheme that extended over the past 10 or 12 years and was still considered to be in the experimental stage. Wheat farming was the form of cropping carried on . and, to avoid the crops being ruined by the lifting of the soil during the terrific storms, the land was now ploughed in ; strips instead of in large areas of from 1)00 to 700 acres. The strips in between were allowed to lie uncultivated and protected the growing crops—the effects of the storms being limited.

"J don't think there is any difference in the amount of farm mechanisation in the United States as compared with New Zealand," said Mr. Sewell. "This country is really up-to-date. As far as dairy farming is concerned I spent five weeks in Wisconsin, the biggest dairying State in the Union. Apart from the greater amount of outside equipment —barns and so forth for housing the stock through the severe winters— there is no advance in general principle on the methods used in the Waikato and Taranaki here."

One point that struck him was the tremendous wheat crop produced in Kansas—loo,ooo.ooo bushels were harvested just before he left —compared with the 0.000,000 or 7,000,000 bushels grown annually in New Zealand.

"Everybody in the U.S.A. is waiting to see how Roosevj-rt's plans will turn out." he said. "There is a fall-off in business which is. on the whole, less active than in 1937-38."

Mr. and Mrs. Sewell will leave for t hristchureh by the Limited express tonight.