BOARD OF AGRICULTURE

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3007, 19 February 1917, Page 8

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE

THE SUPPLY OF POTASH. » iii'fon^r 1 f A Bricnltuie held a meet : wit, %>u 0l ,?, übhc "rtwest were denli i l- f ° llowin ff official report of tin | PVOceodings has been supplied :- l .wif„ t question of a minimum price oi • 'a,mfi H next , year lvas discussed al . sonw length, and it was agreed to write 7' sub t mslor of on the 1 „fV°fe, was received from a niembei ot the Military Service Board stating thai ft "UMber of farmers who are drawn ii i ' .™ 6 .J°«llot for military service, more es / peotally in the back country, had frequently 'quently to disposo of their farms-"ir numerous cases they sell at a considerable loss"—and pointing out that there yls a danger in these circumstances oi aggregation. The opinion was expressed that, it would bo much more fair to these nien if the Government were to purchase their properties for settlement by return ;.ed soldiers. The feeling of the Appeal Board in question was that some steps should be taken to find out the minimun number of men required for the industry, as well as a census' of the number 'available. In connection with this point the board thought that some special inquiry should be made in the case of the - small farmer working his own land without paid help, for in many cases the income from the farm would be insuffi- . cient to pay the cost of hired labour. The , board decided to endorse the suggestions contained in the letter, and to forward it on to the Hon. Minister of Defence. A long conference with Mr. Aston, agricultural chemist, took place in, connection with some proposals that hat! been made to the board regarding the supply of potash. After the matter had been fully discussed it was decided to that the Department should make inquiries as to the practicability of utilising the wood ashes from sawmills for manurial purposes; also to'ascertain whether anything could be done to obtain potash, iodine, etc., from the seaweeds on the New Zealand coast. • A' letter was received from Mr. E. Parry,-chief electrical engineer, of the Public. Works Department, stating that strenuous efforts are being made the world over at the present time to discover new deposits of potasli and economic processes for'extracting potash from potash bearing rocks, owing to the cutting off of the supply of the natural deposit -due to the war. Mr. Parry mentioned that a chemisal process of treating feldspar was undergoing trial in the Unitel States, and also an electrolytic process for extracting potash out of alunite, -and. that recently a new electrolytic process for treating feldspar was patented in the United States. As the process was a simple one and capable of demonstration on a small scale an experiment was carried out in the Dominion Laboratory, the result of which, although not being satisfactory or promising, yet could not be said to be conclusive, and it is hoped to repeat the experiment on a larger scale at Aldington, and to conduct other investigations of a similar character at the Erst opportunity. ■ Mr. Parry further stated that several electro-chemical and electrometallurgical developments requiring the aid of electricity for their successful pursuit were in view, some of which will no doubt eventuate in course of time, such as the manufacture of nitric acid, caustic 6oda, hydrochloric acid, grinding phosphate rock and limestone, and converting the rock phosphate to a soluble form such as the preparation of bicalcic phosphate by the Palmaer proess, which depends for its success upon the production of cheap hydrochloric acid by electrolytic means. There should . be no difficulty in getting any of these processes into operation now that a supply of electricity is available, provided it can bo proved that they are commercially and economically sound. The question of requesting manure vendors to follow the terminology of the Fertilisers Act in all their statements referring to the composition of 'artificial fertilisers, to which attention had' been drawn" by the North Canterbury Executive of the N.Z. Farmers' Union was fully discussed, as was also the question of amending the Fertilisers Act to.-- safeguard the purchaser of fertilisers, and to give' full credit to the vendor for the different forms in which phosphoric acid occurs in fertilisers, in connection with which Mr. W. D. Hunt, a member of the board, had provided a detailed report. Both matters were fully gone into with Mr. Brown, Director of the Fields Division of the Department of Agriculture, and with Mr. Aston, Agricultural Chemist, and a committee of the-hoard was set up to confer with the Department in the matter. The board also considered the regulations in regard to the carriage of lime for agricultural pui-noses on the railways, in respect of • which a report had been drawn up by Mr. Hunt. After a lengthy discussion it was decided to write to the Taranaki Executive of the New Zealand Farmers' Union, asking that body for information as to the cost of sea-borne lime to fanners in its district, so that

further representations could be made to the Railway Department on the subject of the concession granted by It in the carriage of agricultural lime. With regard to tho noxious weeds question, a further conference with the officers of the Department of Agriculture took place, and a report that had been drawn up by the committee appointed for the purpose of suggesting amendments to _ the Noxious .Weeds Act was wad. A lengthy report was also read by Mr. Cockayne, Biologist <.f the Department, giving a precis of the luM-ination contained in the "weed census" that had been received by tho board in reply to its circular asking to be furnished with particulars in regard to the v orst weeds in the various centres of the Dominion. Consideration of both reports was adjourned until the next meeting. Tho board also discussed with the Dopartmnetal officers the practicability of obtaining legislation, at an early date to control the importation of agricultural seeds. The president introduced the subject (rf club-root disease and its rapid spread, which was a serious menace to the rape and turnip crops of New Zealand, and it was decided to write to the Minister of Agriculture asking that a special officer be' detailed to conduct a full investigation on'the methods of distribution of the disease; also to investigate regarding the. rotting of turnips in the South Island. Amongst other matters dealt with were the following:—A soil survey of New Zealand; the improvement of handling of fruit wharves, ■ etc.; the duty on timber imported from British possessions for bos-making purposes; the suggested prohibition of the export of white pine timber, and the publication of the results of agricultural experiments.