GRASSLANDS CONFERENCE

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27149, 19 September 1953, Page 5

GRASSLANDS CONFERENCE

The New Zealand Grasslands Association, which was formed just before the war to bring together scientists and farmers interested in grass-

land farming, has in the years since the war, grown remarkably. Present membership is not far short of 1000, and a number of these are overseas. Membership in 1949 was 187. The object of the association is to further grassland farming, and its policy has always been to mix scientists and practical farmers at its annual conferences, in the belief that each has something to teach and to learn from the other. The size of the membership, which includes farmers and scientists from every part of the Dominion, is the best indication of the success of this policy. The annual conference of the association is held in a different centre each year, and papers and discussions for the most part deal with the problems of the district in which the conference sits. As well as this specific discussion, it is usual for grassland scientists to report their latest research work to the conference. This year’s conference, which is the fifteenth will be held at Whangarei from November 9 to November 12. it is only within recent years that modern techniques have made it possible to farm vast areas of the North Auckland peninsula profitably, and production is increasing there probably faster than in any other part of New Zealand. Much of the attention of the conference will be directed to these advances, but as usual, many of the papers, both from practical men and from scientists, will have a geenral application as well as their specific application to Northland. The conference will open with papers describing North Auckland farming and soils, which will be followed by a symposium giving details of development work on the very difficult soils of the region. Much of this discussion will be of wide general interest., because it will deal, among other things, with new techniques of bringing in scrub and other difficult country. . A symposium on the sub-tropical grasses found successful in the north will occupy the second day. . Drainage of farm lands, a subject ot lively interest throughout a great part of New Zealand, will be discussed on the third day. and on the concluding day the papers will, as usual, be from grassland scientists, and will be of wide general interest . The usual visits to farms in tne district have been organised, and after the conference there is to be a fourday tour of North Auckland.