SEEDS AND PASTURES

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 25, 30 January 1923, Page 5

SEEDS AND PASTURES

STORY OP A NEW ZEALAND GRASS.

Among the visitors to New Zealand from England is Mr. L. Noel Sutton, of Sutton and Sons, seedsmen, Reading. The seed farms associated with the firm are familiar to many New Zealanders who were on active service, as the Great Western Railway, over which they travelled, passed through the many acres of land, all devoted to seed-raising. Mr. Sutton is accompanied by Mr. Stevens, also connected with his firm. . They are in New Zealand on a visit of inspection. Mr. Sutton, in the course of conversation with a representative of "The Post," said the important seed-raising industry of Great Britain had been maKing great headway within quite recent years. It had been checked, with other industries, by the war, although some compensation was found in the great • activity on the part of the people of England in cultivating allotments, during the war period, when there was a great demand for vegetable seeds. In this way a national saving was effected, and vacant ground was put to the excellent use of furnishing additioni to the common food supply. There was noticeable, too, a beneficial effect of gardening upon the health of people, who, in the majority of cases, were accustomed to sedentary occupations. The interest was not now so keen; but there was no doubt about the good that the putting of allotments into vegetables did for the country as a whole.

Speaking- of New Zealand, Mr. Sutton sajd he had done no more than glance at the country as the train went through from Auckland to Wellington. He was much struck, however, by the fine pasture land that he saw from the train, particularly jn the Manawatu. There was not the..attention to, nor, he believed, the need for, the regular sowing of pastures as in England. One could not say without going closely into the matters on the spot what New Zealand's needs would be in the future; but it seemed to him that dairy farmers in New" Zealand were very fortunate in their pasture lands, as he had seen them from the train; and there was no doubt that they had to thank the exceedingly kindly climate for the excellent growth. No doubt the same, in a measure, would apply to sheep and cattle lands. Mr. Sutton said he had good reason to believe that a grass seed, Chewing's fescue, now imported from New Zealand by his firm, was originally the red fescue that. Sutton and Sons, many years ago, sent out to this country. It was necessary to'import this seed from New Zealand to-day, for there was evidently something in local conditions that \va6 highly beneficial to the grass.' It seemed to do better here than elsewhere, hence the importation by Great Britain of a seed of a grass that it wae n'ost probable liad originally come from England, improved its character, and had become an export of a country at the Antipodes of its original home. Foreign competition in New Zealand with British seeds was not, he believed, severely felt, nor wag it at Home Formerly jn flower seeds, there was great competition from the Continent, but the quality wag now seriously below what it wa« before the war, and some countries that put out some very good seeds were now offering inferior stocks. Mr. Sutton was much struck, as the train came through in the daylight, by the desolate appearance of hills and mountain ranges, some bared from crown to foot, some with skeleton-like remains of forests; also fields in which there was but little move to be seen than burned and splintered stumps, acres and acres of them. He supposed 'this clearing had to be, but it was a melancholy spectacle, after the glimpse* ' one had from the train' of patches of the unique virgin forest of New Zealand.