THE WEEK

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23813, 5 December 1942, Page 3

THE WEEK

THE SEASON

Farmers could well do without the latest burst of rain. A few weeks’ dry weather would not come amiss at the present time, as the soil contains a good supply of moisture, and a bout of warm weather is required to bring wheat and other cereal crops along and generally harden stock feed. The unusually late opening of the freezing works—December 7—is attributed to the soft feed and the delay in fattening therefrom. Haymakers have had a broken harvest, the frequent showers coming at crucial periods. One result of the liberal amount of moisture in the last few weeks is a great show of white clover flower, and if normal conditions set in shortly it would appear as if another heavy crop will be gathered. Potatoes are making extraordinary growth. If the top growth can be taken as an indication, yields should be heavy. However, this is not a dependable indication, and in any case this excessive growth may encourage blight later on in the season. Notwithstanding these minor adversities, the province is stated by visitors during the week to be looking better at this time of the season than for years.

SURPLUS RAPE SEED

It is doubtful whether the average farmer, or those who are supposed to guide him in Ins production work in present conditions, realise that some aspects of production are being overdone. The growing of rape seed is a case in point. The statistics for the 1942 harvest show t hat 2365 acres were grown for seed as against 544 the preceding season, and the production in 1942 was 1,402.0241b, or approximately 610 tons, as against 211,150 lb, or 92 tons, in 1941. The production, representing an increase in quantity of more than 650 per cent., has been stepped up to a degree that immediately suggests troubles in marketing. For fodder in 1942 the area grown, it may be added, was 163,851 acres. It has been estimated that ’the rape seed requirements of the country are 250 tons annually, so that a surplus of 360,000 tons appears unavoidable, now that the English outlet is likely to be closed, and because of the heavy stocks held in England, in addition to the internal production in Australia, which is now ample for that country’s needs without imports from overseas.

The question immediately arises as to what is to be done with this surplus of 360 tons, and the further surpluses probable for a year or two. A suggestion made on the Farm Page last week that the seed might be converted into oil has much to commend it. Oil is a commodity that has to be imported in large quantities over dangerous routes, at a Cost, at the present time, that should enable a local industry to be economically established. There is a plant in Auckland for oil production. It has been suggested to the writer by one close observer of both the seed growing aqd oil production sides of the business that an industry could be permanently established here which would return the grower quite a reasonable price for his seed. The country will always want oil. and the proposed restrictions on the rape seed export appears to create a most favourable opportunity for the authorities to consider the proposal.

WHEAT CONTRACTS

The discussion at the Primary Production Council on Wednesday might imply that the Wheat Committee is not vitally concerned with the wheat contracts which farmers arc asked to sign with their brokers for growing wheat in the 1943 season. This is not the case, however. What the Wheat Committee desires is that the wheat be grown, and the contracts are a pledge that those signing them will endeavour to do this to their maximum capacity. To date the signatories are far from sufficient to provide an idea as to the extension of the acreage next season, and it is to obtain an idea of this extension that the system of contracts was evolved. It was represented at the meeting that many farmers were loath to sign up in the fear that if the weather or other disabilities prevented them fulfilling their intentions they would be held to the full conditions of their contract. The Wheat Committee has previously notified that this is not intended. The committee requires a pledge of the acreage intended to be sown to enable ample time to be given to budget for future needs. These pledges are required to be in brokers' hands by December 12.

PLOUGHING IN LUPINS

A reader asks for advice as to the best time to plough in blue lupins for green manuring. He had been advised that practically any time from when they are a few inches above the ground until they had approached the seeding stage would do. Such advice is completely wrong. The object of the practice is to secure the heaviest, consistent with the sappiest, amount of manurial matter possible in a manner that will facilitate its speedy decomposition when ploughed in. To plough in a young crop robs the soil of this weight of manurial matter and to a large extent makes the operation valueless for the cost involved. On the other hand to plough in a crop at the seeding stage Will mean drying stalks, the decomposing process of which will be delayed in the soil. The proper time is when the crop has about reached its maximum growth, which can be determined by the commencement of the flowering stage, and it is at this stage that the crop is the sappiest. These columns from time to time have described the results secured in the Prebbleton district from the ploughing in of blue lupins as green manure. It has enabled two successive good crops of wheat to be grown on land on which one wheat crop had been an exaction on the soil, and the land afterwards was in a position to carry on with the ordinary rotation. The writer has just come across a 35-year-old publication on forage crops which has the following: "The cultivation of the lupine in Portugal has proved a great national blessing, and has regenerated large tracts of wornout land. In Germany and other countries of Western Europe great use is made of this plant in bringing fertility to poor sandy soils too poor to grow other crops profitably, until so renewed.”

HIGH COUNTRY CONDITIONS

'A North Canterbury high country runholder in town last week told "Straggler” that the bright spot in the high country sheep business this year was that, the winter had been a particularly good one. Falls of snow had generally been light in comparison with those of frequent years, and there were no losses approaching those of 1941, when some flocks were cut down by half. Snows were less frequent, moreover, and feed had been good right on until the lambing. The latter had been satisfactory, particularly so in his case, as he had marked 92 per cent, compared with from 80 to 85 as a general rule in normal seasons, and, of course, much less than that in a rough winter. Other advices are that the clip should be a well-grown- one, because of the favourable season, and if the grower is to receive a substantial

proportion of the increase of 15 per cent, in the price of this year’s wool some of the preceding season’s heavy losses would be recovered. Lambs were in good nick and store lambs in the autumn should be well grown and better conditioned.

Two trucks of six-tooth shorn halfbred wethers from southern Marlborough, part of a line of 210, sold at the Addington market last week at 255, and the remainder, scarcely so forward and smaller, at 225. The line was recorded in Thursday's report as being passed at auction, but it was sold under the hammer. The price indicates the demand existing for forward store wether a.