CROPS AND PASTURES

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 255, 25 July 1935, Page 6

CROPS AND PASTURES

Conference of Grassland Association

MANY IMPORTANT PAPERS

This year the conference of the Zealand Grassland Association will return to Christchurch with a programme more ambitious and more distinctly South Island in its subject matter than was the successful 1933 conference. In the meantime the association has extended its activities to embrace not only pastures but crops supplementary to pastures and stock-husbandry mat* ters relative to efficient utilisation of pastures.

The association executive, consisting of Messrs. A. H. Cockayne, E. Bruce Levy and It. B. Connell, of the Department of Agriculture, and Professor lliddet and Mr. A. IV. Hudson, of Massey Agricultural College, has been assisted regarding Canterbury arrangements by Professor Hilgendorf and Mr. G. 11. Holford, Christchurch members of the committee. As a result of the joint efforts provision has been made for a comprehensive review of the grass-farming position, with particular attention- to matters of direct practical moment. In brief the conference promises to be a mobilising of the forces, scientific and industrial, which labour to enable New Zealand to maintain her paramount position as a leader in grassland farming. This may be gleaned, from a resume of tlie papers to be presented. Pasture Utilisation. The initial group of papers to be considered on August 7, the opening day, is devoted to pasture utilisation and includes contributions by Mr. R. B. Tennent, of the Department of Agriculture, on the problems of the important South Island tussock areas; by Mr. C. I’. McMeekan, of Massey College, on the value of pastures in pig-keeping; by Mr. R. P. Connell, of the Department of Agriculture, on the role of special forage crops; by Mr. M. ,1. Scott, of Canterbury Agricultural College, on winter-feeding of stock in Canterbury; and by Mr. A. 11. Flay, of Canterbury Agricultural College, on new’ pastures as green feed. On the afternoon of the opening day the following papers devoted to pasture establishment and maintenance are to be presented:—Banks Peninsula pastures, by Mr. McGillivray, Agriculture Department; seed mixtures for Canterbury conditions, by Professor Alexander ; and Canterbury experience with subterranean clover, by Mr. C. H. Hewlett, of the Canterbury Seed Co. On the evening of the opening day Mr. A. 11. Cockayne, Assistant DirectorGeneral of Agriculture, will deliver his presidential address. This will be followed by economic papers on the present utilisation of New Zealand grassland by Mr. E. J. Fawcett, Department of Agriculture, and the future utilisation of New Zealand grassland by Mr. F. It. Callaghan, of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. These evening papers are to be a popular review of the current position and trends in our farming, and

as they deal with matters of basic national importance the general public is cordially invited to attend. On the forenoon of August 8 the conference will function as two sections sitting concurrently. Plant Production. In the section devoted to plant production and improvement the following papers are listed; Plant-breeding programme for 1935 relative to grasses and clovers, L. Corkill, Plant Research Station, Palmerston North. Lucerne breeding work, R. A. Calder, Plant Research Station, Palmerston North. Pedigreeseed production, E. Bruey Levy, Plant Research Station, Palmerston North. The value of various strains of perennial ryegrass under Canterbury conditions, J. Calder, Canterbury Agricultural College, Lincoln. Field experiences relative to certified ryegrass in Canterbury, F. 0. Schmidt, Messrs. Wright, Stephenson and Co., Ltd., Christchurch. of Neiv Zealand certified clovers in NewZealand and abroad, L. W. Gorman, Plant Research Station, Palmerston North. Behaviour of New Zealand certified grasses in New Zealand and abroad, S. H. Saxby, Plant Research Station, Palmerston North. Laboratory methods in the determination of plant type, N. R. Foy, Seed Testing Station, Palmereton North.

In the soils and nutrition section the following papers are listed: Nitrogen topdressing in Otago and Southland, A. Stuart, Department of Agriculture, Invercargill. Nitrogen fertilisers in relation to plant toxicity, E. A. Madden, Plant Research Station. Palmerston North. Nitrogen fertilisers on pastures and crops in New* Zealand, A. V. Montgomery, Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd., Auckland. The use of lime on New Zealand pastures, J. W. Woodcock, Department of Agriculture, Wellington. Observations on the effect of feeding sheep on a limedeficient diet, Dr. M. C. Franklin, Canterbury Agricultural College, Lincoln. Fertiliser placement in relation to root grow’th in grasses, W. A. Jacques, Massey Agricultural College, Palmerston North. Cockayne Memorial Lecture. On the evening of August 8 the members of the Grassland Association are to be guests of the Canterbury Philosophical Society, when Dr. H. Allen, of the Plant Research Station, Palmerston North, will deliver the Cockayne Memorial Lecture, in which the monumental scientific work of the.late Dr. Leonard Cockayne will be discussed.

On August 9 the following papers will be presented: The grassing of scrub land in the Auckland province, P. W. Smallfield, Department, of Agriculture, Auckland. Pastures, etc., in sheep farming in South Canterbury, Alan Grant, “Oraig•burn,” Waimate. Grass farming, its potentialities and limitations, G. 11. Holford, Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd., Christchurch. Production of brassica seeds, J. AV. Hadfield, Plant Research Station, Palmerston North. Production of pasture seed in Canterbury, C. C. Leitch, Department of Agriculture, Christchurch. Fescue seed, production, AV. Faithful, Department of Agriculture, Gere. Small seed production in Otago and Southland, J. AVallace, Department of Agriculture, Dunedin. The manuring of Nelson pastures, Dr. 11. O. Askew, Cawthron Institute. Nelson. Peaty and peat soils of the AVaipa county, Dr. L. I. Grange and N. H. Taylor, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, AVellington. Seychelles and other soft phosphates as grassland fertilisers, J. A. Bruce, Chenpstry Section, Department of Agriculture, AVellington.