BENEFITS FROM IRRIGATION

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22269, 7 December 1937, Page 10

BENEFITS FROM IRRIGATION

CROPS AND PASTURE IN SOUTH CANTERBURY FARMERS SEE LEVELS AND REDCLIFF SCHEMES More than 150 Mid-Canterbury farmers travelled from Ashburton yesterday to see the result of irrigation on the pasture and grain growing areas of Levels and Redcliff. They were conducted over country where the benefits through irrigation were impressively shown, and where the contrast offered by irrigated and non-irrigated land was continually seen. On Mr A. Cloughley's property at Levels the party was shown what Mr W C. Stafford, of the Agriculture Department, described as an outstanding example of the effect of irrigation on lucerne. Before the application of water on this paddock the yield had been less than two cuts a year. Mr Stafford said Twenty days ago the paddock had been cut and within a few days the lucerne, now knee-high, would be ready for cutting again. It would be possible, he said, for :his paddock to yield, under irrigation, six cuts a year. Two hours were sufficient to irrigate the area by free flooding, said Mr Stafford. In patches where the water had not penetrated there was an almost unbelievable contrast to the lucerne which had been irrigated Here grass was predominant and the lucerne, only a few inches high, was barely distinguishable. The response of lucerne to irrigation at Levels was as ready, he said, as the response had been at Redcliff. The efficiency of the border dyke system of irrigation was shown on Mr C. E. Kerr's property, where 800 ewes and wethers and about 300 lambs are being carried on 86 acres. Mr T G. Beck, resident engineer to the Public Works Department at Temuka, pointed out how the removal of the top soil to form levels had not interfered with the fertility of the soil as a whole. The water had done its job effectively, with no suggestion of scouring, spreading like gentle rain over each allotted space, and forming a surface almost lawnlike, with a pasture rich vn clover. Mr Kerr observed that when he purchased the property the land was neglected, lying dormant in wheat stubble. In March and April he had sown it in grass, and in spite of being sown late and having to contend with severe frosts, the grass had grown to form a good sole. A year ago he did not suppose the land would carry half a sheep to the acre; now it wis carrying 10 sheep to the acre, in addition to lambs. At Redcliff the party was conducted over the properties of Messrs J. G. Ruddenklau, D. Boyd Wilson, R. Geddes, and A. Brown, where the effects of irrigation on pastures and crops, especially on wheat and oats, were seen to better advantage even than at Levels.