Air Topdressing Is Hailed In Great Britain

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 15, Issue 97, 18 September 1950, Page 6

Air Topdressing Is Hailed In Great Britain

The Farmers’ Weekly, which was one of several firms sponsoring the recent air topdressing demonstration at Plynlimmon, England, says that the demonstration was 20th century pioneering the end of which no man can forsee.

“As with any experiment, however successful, there are still things we do not know, but none of them in any way diminishes the immense significance of this enterprise,” it says.

“For 100 years and more thousands of cattle and sheep have been leaving our hills every year, and in so doing have drained them of their fertility. This is a form of erosion less obvious, but none the less real than the sandstorms we hear of in other parts of the world. “New Zealand, in particular, where much of the grazing is very like our own hill land, has found this erosion and is proposing to put it right by exactly the methods demonstrated at Plynlimmon. New Zealand expects to deal with two million acres yearly for five years.

“We have at least four million acres of hill and marginal land needing lime and phosphate. Much of it, till last week, seemed beyond reach of ordinary methods of fertiliser distribution. Last week showed that they are within our reach, if we have the will to set about it.