SEASON IMPROVES

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 290, 7 December 1943, Page 4

SEASON IMPROVES

WAIKATO AND AUCKLAND

FERTILISERS GREATEST NEED

Conversations with farmers in the Waikato and impressions of the country generally in the course of a recent journey by plane from Hamilton to Wellington have convinced the Dominion secretary of the New Zealand Farmers' Union, Mr. A. P. O'Shea, that the decline in production during the current season will not be so great as exioected a few weeks ago. Mr. O'Shea said in Wellington that practically everywhere the country was looking in excellent condition. Shortage of farm labour, lack of fertilisers and, above all, the late spring, followed by a dry spell in Waikato and Auckland had made the prospects unfavourable, he said, but pastures and crops had responded wonderfully to the later rains. The cumulative effect of the wartime shortage of fertilisers was beginning to be seriously felt, said Mr. O'Shea. In the first year after the outbreak farmers had received 70 per cent of their previous requirements and since then supplies had been-cut to 28 per cent. On good-, class land the effect on pastures was not apparent to the eye. but it was unmistakably reflected in dropping production. On poorer class land the weeds were gaining. Farmers had stressed the need for increasing fertiliser supplies as soon as possibfe. said Mr. O'Shea. He believed the Government was aware of the position and was doing all it could in the meantime.