THE WEEK

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27309, 27 March 1954, Page 5

THE WEEK

“SECOND STEP IN LAND DEVELOPMENT”

“Although I feel that the Progress League is to be commended in its efforts to foster more production from Canterbury’s farm lands, I must, as an irrigator with some experience and a number of mistakes behind me, express concern at their suggesting to farmers that they should rate themselves to obtain the benefits of irrigation,” writes Mr A. Hugh-Sim, of Carew.

“Six years ago, when we introduced irrigation to our farm, I believed just as firmly as the Progress League appears to do now, that irrigation offered the only means of raising the carrying capacity of a Canterbury Plains farm. Today, I believe irrigation to be the second stage in that .development and that it is capable of doubling again dryland’s maximum, providing the farmer is allowed to feel his way, so that he may solve as he goes the many problems peculiar to irrigation. “As an irrigator I state with all seriousness that unless a farmer has at least 10 per cent, of his farm in lucerne and lucern-cocksfoot, has been topdressing super at the rate of at least 2 cjvt an acre over all of his farm every year, has been using adequate lime and D.D.T., and has subdivided his paddocks until on a 600 acre unit he has no paddock bigger than 25 acres and a large number considerably smaller, he has no idea what * irrigation can do for him, and most emphatically he does not know to what area of irrigation he should commit himself.

“I suggest to farmers in the proposed new irrigation areas that they invite their local instructor in agriculture to their farm. Ask him if the production of the farm can be doubled without irrigation, how long it will take, and what it will cost, particularly what it will cost. I feel confident that the answer will be “yes” in nearly every case and I know that the cost an acre is large.

“When farmers are told by the instructor that they must spend £4 an acre for fencing, 24s an acre a year on super, 30s an acre each third or fourth year for D.D.T., 10s yearly for lime, build a house costing £2OOO to accommodate the extra labour required, build another hayshed, and be prepared to find ever increasing sums of money running into many thousands of pounds in the next few years, they will react violently. “Some may even say it can’t be done. But, if they follow the Progress League and Mr McArthur they will certainly have to spend the £4 an acre for fencing, plus another £4 to get their paddocks a suitable size for irrigation, and spend the 24s an acre for super, and the 30s for D.D.T. in spite of what Mr McArthur said at Chertsey about D.D.T. and the 10s yearly for lime, and build the house, and the hayshed and find the ever-increasing thousands for extra stock. And, on top of all that, support the 12s 6d an acre rate over all the farm, and find 21s an acre yearly to apply the water to the land, ana spend £7 an acre cn bordering, etc., and face up to unthriftyness in stock, and deal with silty water, and organise their farms on a 24-hour irrigation day. ' “Most farmers 'are anxious to increase production. Under rating they would be forced into large-scale irrigation before they understand it, and before the farms were ready either in subdivision or in adequate preparatory fertilising. Rating would dictate that most of the farmer’s energies and capital were put into the irrigated area of the faf-m. This might well result in doubled production from the farm as a whole, but it would be at the expense of neglect of the possibilities of the greater dry land portion of the farm. Or worse, he might decide to lead water to every corner of the farm, which would result in even greater. waste of his resources of land, labour, capital, and water.

“I agree with Mr McArthur about the gold in Canterbury rivers, but disagree about that gold rolling down to the sea. It must be picked up in small quantities at first, and fed into Canterbury’s economy in ever-increasing amounts, as learn how to handle their newly-found wealth. Any attempt to lift that gold in one greedy scoop will plunge farmers into a state of muddlement and inefficiency, and set back the cause of true irrigation perhaps 100 years.”

CONTROL OF GRASSGRUB

Mr C. Hilgendorf, Sherwood, writes:—

Mr Melville Turton does no more than justice to the work done by Messrs Kelsey, and Hoy, of the Entomological Research Station at Ashburton, into the control of grass grub and porina. It has already been of the very highest value and appears likely to be of even greater value in the future.

Mr Turton, however, does rather less than justice to the Ashburton farmers’ appreciation of the work done by the reasearch station. With the help of Mr Gerard. Federated Farmers and the Ashburton A. and P. were last year responsible for the restoration of the cut in the station’s grant, which threatened to reduce the scope of its work very greatly. Since this .involved considerable correspondence and personal interviews with the late permanent head of the D.S.I.R. Mr F. R. Callaghan, his successor, Dr. W. M. Hamilton and with Mr Algie, the minister in charge, none of these gentlemen is in any doubt as to the very high regard in which the station and its officers are held by farmers. Nor are Mr Kelsey and Mr Hoy in any doubt in the matter since Federated Farmers has, on several occasions, passed resolutions speaking in the most complementary terms of their work. The lastest of these was last December when it was first known that Mr Hoy was going to Palmerston North. WOOL SALE DATES • The following are the dates arranged for this season’s main New Zealand wool sales:— March 31.—Napier. April 2,—Napier. April 7. —Wellington. April 24.—Christchurch. April 29. —Dunedin. May 3.—lnvercargill. May 14.—Auckland. May 19. —Napier. May 22.—Wanganui. May 26.—Wellington.