PASTURE LANDS.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20272, 25 June 1931, Page 9

PASTURE LANDS.

USE OP FERTILISERS. MINISTER'S ENTREATY. (I>£ESS ASSOCUTIOH TELXQrSIV.) . NEW PLYMOUTH, June $4.. I The encouragement given by the Government to farmers to keep fertilising the land in order to obtain greater production was the subject of reference by the Minister for Agriculture, the Hon. A. J. Murdoch, in an address at the National Dairy Conference to-day. Concession rates had been provided la! •. recent years, he said, for the carriage of lime and fertilisers. In 1914 the amount of fertilisers imported into v the ; . Dominion was 100,000 tons, but in 1920 it was 335,176 tons. This enormous on*. . crease was to a large extent made possible by the Government's assistance, for between 1926-27 and 1930-31 the Gov* eminent had-expended £837,604 in the carriage of fertilisers. Between 1924-25 and the present day the carriage of lima had necessitated the expenditure of £202,000 from the Consolidated Fund. The Government, however, could not do everything; and to take mosey out of the Consolidated Fund was merely one way of taking it indirectly out of farmers* packets. The sum of £IOO,OOO had been provided recently for the purchase of fertilisers. At first it had been decided to ad* minister - this fund through the Boral Intermediate Credits Board, but it vat found there was not sufficient elasticity, and the system had been altered until now it was satisfactory/ Many enquiries had been made, and considerable .. assistance had been given. It was a. step in the right direction, although the facilities available were apparently not as widely known as they ought to be. In return for its £IOO,OOO the Government Jearnestry entreated farmera to eon- ' eentrate on making use of the opportunity and keeping pastures well rertilised with the object of increasing v production. '.