BIG YIELDS OF SEEDS

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25388, 10 January 1948, Page 3

BIG YIELDS OF SEEDS

Successful English Farm NEW ZEALAND VISITOR’S IMPRESSIONS [The exceptional - ' yields of small seeds obtained by an English farmer who specialises in this work impressed a New Zealand observer who visited the property recently. The visitor was Mr H. E. Gar-• rett, of the farm management department of Canterbury Agricultural College, who ■recently went to England for a two-year course of study. Mr Garrett records his impressions in the following article.] Recently I had the pleasure of visiting the property of Mr Howe, Landford Downs, Lechlade, Berkshire, on the edge of Berkshire and Oxfordshire. Mr Howe is engaged in farming along lines of special interest to Canterbury farmers. He is producing grain and small seeds in a big way in conjunction with a very limited livestock policy—his real aim is as near 100 per cent, cash cropping as possible. To demonstrate how successful he has been in this, his average area harvested in the last five years has been 270 acres out of his 413 hcres.

Mr Howe has a labour force of six men, one boy and himself and casual labour on his 413 acres. The farm includes 140 acres of heavy clay (10 acres being too wet to plough), 55 acres light Thames gravel, and 218 acres, also light stony land. The rainfall is 25 to 30 inches, and as far as I can gather is liable to occasional droughty periods like Canterbury, but not as severe. After initial experiments on the lighter land, Mr Howe has moved his white clover on to the heavy land where his rotation is old grass to beans, peas or vetches, and wheat, which’ is oversown with white clover. The white clover receives a dressing of half a ton of basic slag an acre in its first year and is put into condition for seed production by an early hay cut. After trials, this method was preferred to ripping off with the ewe flock as we do in Canterbury for the most part. Yields are about 2001 b of dressed seed an acre where the Aberystwyth strain 5.100 is sown, and 1501 b wnere English wild white is sown. The clover is down for three years and does not receive any further manuring. Further clover crops may be taken or store cattle fattened in the later stages. Wheat yields average about 50 bushels an acre - r _> The light land was farmed on the basis of this rotation:—epeksfoot for seed 3-4 years, or Sainfoin for seed 3-4 years; wheat; mustard for seed; wheat; red clover for seed; sugar beet, or potatoes; cocksfoot, etc. In addition to this rotation Mr Howe grows about 30 acres of vegetable seeds such as onions, cabbage, chicory, and also flowers. The cocksfoot is sown at the rate or 41b an acre in 21-inch rows and intercultivated. It is drilled in spring with 2cwt of complete manure and every autumn receives a complete dressing equivalent to 3&cwt super, lewt potash and lewt sulphate of ammonia. In addition to this, as soon after Christmas as possible, he gives the first dose of spring nitrogen, 3 to scwt of nitrochalk, and follows two months later with a similar dose. Yields are most

variable and range from 2001 b to 12001 b of dressed seed an acre. Until recently Mr Howe has been cutting with the binder and stooking, etc., but he now direct heads and matures on a special drying floor with a cool air draught. The red clover seed is oversown on the wheat-crops, and put into condition for seed production by feeding off with store cattle. The yields are very good by our standards and are about 25Qlb of dressed seed an acre for English late flowering, and 300 to 3201 b for broad red.» The only livestock on the farm are 200 pigs which are bought as stores and sold off as fats a few months later after fattening on farm grain and bought-in concentrates; and 60 store bullocks which are wintered in yards on straw from the small seeds and fattened on pasture. There are also 500' Rhode Island cross laying hens. The manorial residues from these animals go into the sugar beet and potato ground. The farm is heavily mechanised. There are three tractors and only one draught horse. There are the "usual range of implements with an 8-foot header, a hay baler, ana, most important, a grain drier and a special aerating floor for out of condition seeds. Mr Howe is emphatic that he could not operate without his header, his drier, and his aerating floor. He also maintains with considerable emphasis that after cocksfoot seed production, timothy seed production and clover seed production the land is in excellent heart for further cropping and does not require permanent livestock and heavy dunging as is generally practised in

CURE FOR SHEATH ROT Fasting or starving has been found to be a fairly effective remedy for sheath rot or pizzle rot of rams and wethers in Australia. Some sheep so affected were sent to Sydney for investigation but on arrival were found to have recovered remarkably. They had been allowed accidently to fast for days. Though 100 per cent, cures cannot by any means ‘be guaranteed, it has now been confirmed by Australian scientists that fasting or starving the sheep in a small Dare paddock for seven to 10 days brings about rapid recovery in many cases of sheath rot Animals still affected can be drafted off and starved for upwards of three weeks if they are given access to feed for occasional short periods. The infection begins as a scab-like ulcer near the opening of the sheath and renders the sheep particularly prone to fly-strike Should the fasting procedure fail in some cases, the old remedy of slitting the sheath ana washing with two per cent, copper sulphate solution should get results. HAY YIELDS Farmers from light land entering the city from Riccarton road during the last few days must have cast envious eyes at the bales of hay in North Hagley Park. Farmers on heavy land have plenty of hay, but their fellows on the lighter soil have not been so fortunate. With the continued dry weather they have had to start using their reserves of hay. Hay is now cheaper than it has been for some years, but the price will probably rise as the demand becomes stronger. The Christchurch City Council will harvest about 150 tons of rough hay, which will be sent to the abattoirs for feed, from Hagley Park this season. Four tractors are working on the job. The yield will bo good, but not as heavy as that of last season, when conditions for growth were favourable throughout the year. CANTERBURY WOOL SALES Wool sales will be held in Canterbury to the end of the 1947-48 season on the undermentioned dates, with the number of bales allocated given in parenthesis:—Christchurch: February 18 (28.000): April 3 (27.000): May 21 (27.000). Timaru: January 13 (25,000); April 8 (30 000). '