CANTERBURY AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 13861, 12 October 1910, Page 7

CANTERBURY AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE.

MONTHLY MEETING.

Tho monthly meeting of the Board of Governors of Canterbury Agricultural College was held at Lincoln yesterday. Present—The Hon. E. C. J. Stevens (chairman), and Messrs M. Murphy, J. McMillan, H. Knight, T. Teschemaker, T. Blackley, M. Richardson, and R. E. Alexander (tlie director).

The quarterly farm report presented by the director stated that the past quarter had been an exceedingly trying cue for farmers, as the weather condit.ons had seriously hindered the development of stock and th© growth of crops. The wet and stormy weather of July worked a lot of the condition cf. stock, and that weather, succeeded by sharp frosts at night in August and September, and practically no rain during the latter * month, gave very littlo feed to put stock on, with tho result that they are low in condition md' feed scarce. A severe frost —11 degrees—on the 7th October, also blighted the prospects for fruit. As far as working the laud and getting .n tho spring crops is concerned, the weather had been'ideal. He had succeeded in disposing of the wheat held over at the not very satisfactory once o-" 3s 3d per bushel, but ns a large proportion of it had got badly infested with mites, he thought it better to hell. The scheme of tree-planting had been completed, but the season was rot a very good one. and a larye percentage of the trees, except fruit trees, were doubtful looking. The following is a list of the trees planted :—Shelter belts at Ashlev Dene and Siberia, 18C0 Vinus insigni-". 6ft apart; 1200 pinus muricata, 9ft apart; 1200 pinus Austrica. Oft aoart; 1200 pinus Larico, 9ft a;, art; 1200 eucalyptus Stewartiana, 9ft apart. Tho belts are a little over two miles in length. Fruit trees planted in the orchard are:—lo3 apples (fourteen varieties), 300 gooseberries (eleven varieties), 90 currants lfive varieties), 200 raspberries, and 10 loganberries. Ornamental and forest trees a total of 386. The work done on tho home farm included the sowing of the following crops:—s3 acres oats, 25 acres turnips, 25£ acres kale, 2*H acres rape, and 31 ' acres of peas. Ninety acres, of wheat | and 35 acres of oats "had'been chai.iharrowed. At Ashley Dene there had \ been 80 acres ploughed for turnips, and j52 sown with op.ts. At Siberia there I bad been 149 acres ploughed by contract, 42 out of grass for turnips, and 9P sown with rape. There had been practically no sales of stock during the quarter, but two mares had been bought at the Coldstream sale for 185 guineas. The report was adopted. Tt was decided to notify all interested that Farmers' Day would be on December 20th, and that the next meet- ! ing of the Board be held.on November . Bth, at the rooms of the Canterbury A. and P. Association.