THE BIG SHOW

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 147, 23 June 1915, Page 15

THE BIG SHOW

THE GOVERNMENT'S AGRICULTURAL DISPLAY • ' HELPING PRODUCTIVITY LESSONS FOR FARMERS There has grown up with the Manawatu Dairy Show a very valuable feature, a feature with a utility not limited to the Manawatu alone, for it has been incorporated also in most of the Tug shows of the Dominion. It is the exhibit of the Fields Branch of the Agricultural Department. This exhibit adds very considerably to the educative value of the show; arid the show, in turn, has its office of good service to the Government, because it affords an opportunity of displaying this vast collection of experiments. The exhibit occupies a considerable area in one of the concert halls. It has taken the Department the best part of a fortnight to unpack and display. The exhibit travels up this' year from the Invercargill and Dunedin shows, where it has been displayed to the Southern farmers. Conditions of farming down there are not exactly the same as in the warmer climate of these parts, and yet so comprehensive is the exhibit, and .covers' so completely in its collection of experiments the whole of the Dominion, that it is of equal value in any province. The Fields Instructor, Mr. W. J. M'Cul. loch, is in charge. From him the visitor can obtain valuable elucidating information on any feature of the exhibit, or upon any farming problem within reason. The farmer who doubts whether he is getting the best yield from his land, and especially the enterprising settler who is not satisfied with the average yield, would do well to consult him about suitable crops, or upon that very important matter, the manure question. It would be quite possible to write very enthusiastically about the really magnifioent exhibit from the display point of view alone. It must have taken an immense amount of time to have thought everything out, and arranged such an ordered collection, everything ticketed, and the meaning and intention of everything made easily understood. But it is this that makes the exhibit of such value to the farmer. It is a very fine tribute to the Department and ite energy and thoroughness. One feels the impossibility of the task of attempting to deal in detail with the mass of practical demonstrations the exhibit contains. It is possible only to touch upon a feature here and theie. A stand of wheat, for instance, is shown, all Imported varieties, grown for the firet tim« in New Zealand last season. On an area of 40 acres in the South Island the Department is carrying out the acclimatisation of cereals from almost every part of the world, the intention being to pick out the best of them after about from three to five years pa66es. The new varieties are brought in amongst the older ones, until the Department finds what are the best. Then the seeds are sent out to farmers, who ascertain the districts the most suitable for their production. Thirty varieties are on exhibit, besides samples of grain. There is also a stand of grasses, including v deep-rooted plants; and it is interesting to Bee a. section of soil from the gum lands of North Auckland, showing the scanty native vegetation. This land was looked upon as absolutely useless before the Department took up experimenting; but fertilisers and lime were used, and after two years a transformation "vac effected, grasses were grown, and the land increased in value. One very interesting exhibit represents experiments recently initiated on the Pahiki lands of Weetland, being a portion of 17,000 acres about a mile from Westport, which was covered with manuka and native" sedges— land which no one had any inclination to take up. The Department undertook to place a portion of it in a productive state; and two sheaves of oats included in the exhibit are an indication of the success acnieved. The land thus treated , will grow oats as well as most parts, and the Fields Instructor thinks there is an excellent opportunity for farmers on the West Coast. A wool stand contains eighty odd samples from the flocks of the principal growers, both in the North and the South Islands, the names and addresses being given. That is also a very fine lot of flax shown, which will particularly interest this portion of the Dominion. One of the principal portions of the exhibit is the work of the Fields Division in the way of co-operative experimental plots. ( A very large number of these were laid out last * season under the supervision of the Department, and the results are shown. They include root, grain, and other crops, and information regarding each js very complete. For dairy farmers there are shown conspicuously in tabulated form results of milking tests conducted on the Ruakura, Weraroa, and Maumohaki experimental farms with .different breeds of cows, showing age, date of calving, yield of milk in pounds, average test, and butter-fat; in fact, the details give the whole history of each class of cow. This is approximating the Danish system. Other boards show the results of last season's tests in turnip growing, and from these it will be seen what variety suits a particular class of soil and climate best. Facilities are supplied for any interested fanner to get into communication with the various growers. About a hundred varieties of wheat, oats, barley, grasses, clovers, etc., should engage attention, while a ' stand showing dried specimens of grasses, clovers, forage plants from the Auckland Exhibition demonstration area will arrest the eye. One sheaf of wheat, -with straw 6ft in length, and in keeping with the head, grown by Mr. John Millar, Pembroke, can be seen on the stand. The Department intend sending it to the High Commissioner to let the Englishmen see what New Zealand can do in this particular line. Fertilisers in various samples, and different forms of limes, with particulars as to their value under certain conditions, also find a place in the exhibit. The Instructor states that the elements that are apt to be absent from the soil are nitrogen, phosphates, and potash, and that farmers would be well advised to grow legumes (pod bearing plants), as this form of plant has a good effect upon the soil. There is also a department of the exhibit devoted_ to the enemy of the farmers — deleterious plants and other growths, against which the successful agriculturist has to wage constant war. The exhibit is made with the object of enabling the farmer the better to recognise his enemies, and to grasp to the full the demoralising effect they may exert upon his carefully-cultivated growths. In this department are also included pathological specimens showing diseases in stock. And so the description might continue on into several columns. But the farmer is advised to make his own patient investigation of what the country is doing for him, in order that he in turn may jdo hxa duty to his country..