THE WEEK

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24866, 4 May 1946, Page 3

THE WEEK

LONG SERVICE Mr George Thomson, who for the last 30 years has been on the staff of Dalgety and Company, Christchurch, and who for almost all of that time has been regularly at the stock sales at Addington, has retired. He was met at Addington on Wednesday by a large gathering of his friends and clients, and, on behalf of those present, Mr Allan Matson presented him with a cheque. Mr Thomson was also the guest at a farewell gathering at Dalgety’s office during the week. As a young man Mr Thomson came out from Scotland and began work in Southland, where he was on some of the large runs. He recalls that in those days conditions were pretty rough. Stag ram mutton was generally the main meat course for the men, and butter was a luxury very seldom seen. THE WRONG YEAR A farmer in one of the drier districts of North Canterbury for years watched westerly storms bring tain to one neighbour, and easterly storms bring rain to another, while his property more often than not got no rain from either quarter. He was convinced that this rainfall was lower than the 28 inches averaged by his two neighbours, and last year he bought a rain gauge to help to substantiate his claim. He picked the wrong year, as it was about the wettest the district ever experienced. His gauge registered 554 inches for the year. NEW LUPIN SEED An interesting development of agricultural research workers in Germany during the war was a strain of lupin which does not scatter in seeding, thus overcoming the great difficulty in collecting seed after natural ripening. Dr. I. E. Coop, who- has returned to Canterbury Agricultural College, Lincoln, after serving as liaison officer of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research in Britain, told the Canterbury branch of the New Zealand Institute of Chemistry recently that during a visit to Germany late last year he was successful in obtaining 75 per cent, of a sample of this seed from an Allied research officer, and it was now being grown at Lincoln. CATTLE WITH SHEEP There appears to have been nothing unusual to account for the enormous entry of f&t cattle at Addington on Wednesday. A total of 849 were yarded, and even then, a further 116 which arrived late were held out. They came from all over the South Island, but except for one large line of station cows, no particularly big consignments came forward. It was apparently just .a matter of chance that so many vendors picked last Wednesday to send in their cattle. Yardings in general have been big recently. Ten years ago, anything approaching 400 was considered to be about the limit of the capacity of the market, but now 600 are not unusual. This capacity to absorb large quantities of beef is just another demonstration of the value of Addington to the farmers of the South Island.

The matter for wonder is not where the cattle came from, but where they went to, for most of them were sold. Possibly one reason to account for the larger yardings recently is reflected in a study of the places from which the cattle were consigned. A very large proportion came from sheep stations along the hills of Canterbury, and to some extent Marlborough. Many sheepfarmers are re-discovering the value of running a few cattle to deal with the roughage that sheep cannot cope with, and the two wet years have given point to this. The writer recently walked. over one place, mostly in native grasses, on which great improvements have been affected, to a large extent with the help of cattle. The place is in a rather dry area, and lies well to the sun. When the present owner took it over, 11 years ago, the stocking was at the rate of about a ewe to the acre, an objective the.previous owner had constantly before him so strongly that he carried no cattle. The place was showing obvious signs of suffering from this over-empnasis on sheep. Rough ?ireas, particularly in gullies and on shady faces, began to get out of hand, and burning was used frequently. The better faces were overgrazed, and burning helped to remove the cover from the ground. The place was showing undeniable signs of wear and tear, and the sheep coming off it were slowly going back. The present owner reduced his ewe flock, and put on a few cattle. He adopted a policy of spelling certain blocks as opportunity offered, and went slowly with burning. Results from good farming are very seldom sensational, and this case is no exception; but anyone who saw the place 10 years ago would hardly recognise it to-day. It carries about 175 ewes to every 200 the previous man carried, but it also carries eight cattle to every 175 ewes. Bare patches have grassed over, and above all, the stock coming off it is of an altogether different standard. The place now gives the impression of land in good heart, able to stand a siege. IRRIGATION FARM The indication given this week that the authorities are about to start an irrigation farm on which research into the system is to be commenced is welcome news. It is an undertaking that might with profit have been started when water for irrigation first became available, as by now a mass of practical and technical data would have been available. In support of irrigation, Mr Semple frequently claimed that about 3,000,000 acres in Canterbury were suitable for this type of farming, and the possibilities painted were so alluring that considerable expense would seem to have been justified on some scheme to discover accurately the possibilities of irrigation. On the surface, these possibilities appear to be almost limitless, and where irrigation has been used, under the guidance of the very competent departmental officers who helped to inaugurate irrigation, results appear to have been little short of sensational

But the fact remains that most farmers are still unconvinced of the desirability of putting out the heavy capital expenditure needed to make the best use of water. Many farmers see real danger in a general use of water. Mr Semple the other day declared that he could not see why farmers did not use f irrigation more. The answer, in part at any rate, is simple. It costs about £5 an acre to prepare land for irrigation. On top of that there is the consideration that to cope with extra stock or cultivation, the whole farming system on a property may have to be altered, again with more capital expense. No man is going to put out fairly substantial sums unless he is reasonably fully convinced that the money will not be wasted. In most cases where water is being used, now, it is being used to supplement the rainfall during dry times. It was constantly insisted by the officers in charge of the scheme in its early days that this was entirely the wrong approach. With the experience of irrigation areas overseas to guide them, they insisted that the correct attitude was to regard irrigation water as the main source of water on any farm, and to regard rain as a useful supplement which would have the sole effect of saving a little on the water bill. The claim was that production could be so much stepped up under this system that areas of a couple of hunderd acres or so would be ample for any one man to handle, and they foresaw a future in which the Canterbury Plains would be cut up into small and highly productive farms supporting a population of around half a million. This may be the right view. The indications even now are that it is possible. But much

practical work requires to be done, and much scientific investigation along with it, before farmers can with confidence lay out the money necessary to bring this state of affairs about. A properly conducted Government establishment, or better, establishments in different districts, could go a long way toward discovering in a short time what individual farmers may grope cautiously toward for generations.