FARMING NOTES.

Bruce Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 3097, 8 September 1899, Page 4

FARMING NOTES.

fFiY RUSTICUS.] Whether the use of -whole seed or cut seed in potato growing gives the largest yield per acre is one of those very much debated questions the discussion of which never seems to be getting any nearer finality. Each method has its advocates, and, what confuses matters, each side can produce numberless experiments to show that theirs is by far the safer planLast year very extensive experiments in potato growing were carried out at the Canterbury Agricultural College at Lincoln, the conductors having amongst other things this knotty problem in view. The fully detailed results of the experiments have already been published in several papers and have no doubt been read with much interest by my farming friends. In all 32 varieties of potatoes were planted, some on the 13th, and the others on the 14th of October. The yields obtained were most astonishing in their diversity, ranging from 2 tons ocwt per acre from Queen ot the South variety to 18 tons 14cwt from Up-to-date. JS T or were the results any more satisfactory so far as the whole versus cut seed question is concerned. They did not show, however, that it made little difference which method was adopted. In most cases it was seen that there was the greatest difference in the results obtained. The unsatisfactoriness consisted in the results being so contradictory, with some varieties the use of whole seed being found to yield by far the best results, while with other varieties the very opposite turned out to be the case.

With four varieties no cut seed was planted so that so far as this aspect of the question is concerned they must be left out of account. With some of the varieties there was practically no difference between the two plots : but as I have already said with others there was all the difference in the world either one way or the other. With Savior's Ironclad, for instance, the yields were 15 tons per acre from the whole, and only $ tons from the cut seeds, and with Magnnm Bonum 13 tons 16cwt and 9 tons respectivelyOn the other hand with the variety Jcnown as Her Majesty, the put seed was shown to be better by lq tons, to 10 tons llcwt, and the Berkshire Kidney by 14 tons 3cwt to 9 tong 4ewt. To sum up the results of the experiments 12 out of the 28 varieties may be said to have yielded practically the same there being less than 1 ton difference per acre from the two methods, with \l yai>iet|es jihe results were from 1. ton to 4 tons 18cwt per acre in favor of the whole seed, and wirii the remaining live varieties the cut seed showed better results by from 1 ton 2cwt ifp'to g tons }cwt per acre. Taking the 28 varieties the average peld froi£ the vho|e seed was XJ. tops

4c wt per acre, and from the cut seed lo tons 14cwt per acre. On the whole, then, the experiments were slightly in favor of the uncut seed, but the difference was not sufficiently pronounced to enable us to say that the experiments have done much towards settling the matter either one way or the other.

At a recent meeting of the Christchurch Chamber of Commerce a communication was received from the „Medical Association with reference to the injury done to health by the excessive weight of sacks of wheat. The letter stated that a deputation of lumpers had waited on the Association in connection with the matter, and it was further stated that two of the deputation rePerred to suffered heart disease induced by the strain on the body consequent on the continual handling of heavy wheat bags. There is no doubt that the putting of wheat into sacks that hold from 240 to 260 lbs. weight is one of the good old customs that should be more honored in the breach than in the observance. The use of smaller sacks would cause very little, if any, more expense while the convenience of handling would be a strong point \m their favor. Small sacks are used in many parts, and it seems to me that, in this in stance, we, New Zealanders, are scarcely keeping up to our general reputation for progressiveness in thus clinging to a practice which has little but custom to recommend it.

What little there is appears to lie in the fact that the railway regulations are at present in favor of the heavy sack. In grain, &c., it seems that a ton is reckoned at 20001bs. But 10 bags of wheat are allowed for one ton, and with four bushel bags this means that 24001bs are carried for the rate of 20001bs. By using 2001 b bags the wheat grower would under present regulations lose their advantage, and we may be sui'e that, however much his humantarian instincts may cause him to sympathise with poor lumpers and others who have to handle the heavy sacks day in and day out, he will not o£ his own free will use small sacks and thus be prevented from getting an advantage over the railway department. What is wanted as a first step in the direction of reform is an alteration in the freight charges and with the neccessity for this in view the Chamber of Commerc c referred the matter to the Premier for his considerion.