AGRICULTURAL INSTRUCTION

Evening Star, Issue 22577, 19 February 1937, Page 3

AGRICULTURAL INSTRUCTION

SEED CERTIFICATION TRIALS FIELD DAY ON THE TAIERI With the object of assisting farmers and other growers to cultivate improved potato crops and grazing pastures, the Department of Agriculture held a field day yesterday on the Taieri. Boisterous and showery weather no doubt kept many away, but nevertheless there was quite a fair muster of growers present to receive instruction from the department’s officers. POTATO TRIALS. The visitors first assembled on the property of Mr Findlay, Mosgiel, where the potato certification trials were used for demonstration purposes. Mr J. M. Smith, Fields Superintendent, welcomed those present, and explained that the trials were made for two purposes—to make a comparison between certified and other potatoes, and also that growers might compare their own crops with those sown by others. The object of certification was to try to improve the potatoes generally. There were over 1,000 crops from different growers on the trials. These had been entered for certification, while duplicates of each were being cultivated in Canterbury to discover the differences that would result from their growth in separated districts. Mr Smith added that he was pleased to see members of young farmers’ clubs present, taking an interest in the potatoes. They would be the growers of the future. Mr J. Wallace, seed certification officer, then conducted the party to the area where the trials were actually being made. He gave valuable instruction on technical points concerning the various lines on display, using some as illustrations of what the department was accomplishing in the way of clearing certain diseases. Virus, he explained, was the main disease that an endeavour was being made to eliminate, as it in particular reduced the productiveness of the seeds. Unfortunately, heavy rain prevented a more detailed account and demonstration of the results of the trials, but before the party broke up Mr Wallace answered several questions. A vote of .thanks to the officers for their instructive talks was carried by acclamation. GRASSES AND CLOVERS. A number of those who attended the potato trials then accompanied the department’s staff to Mr J. Young’s property at Allanton, where Mr S. H. Saxby, Instructor in Agriculture, spoke in detail of the various strains of grasses and clovers sown there for trial purposes. He compared the different patches of growths, giving the strain and mixture in each, and explained the advantages and disadvantages that had been discovered during the cultivation of the trials. Here, again, the proceedings had to be curtailed because of rain, but not before graziers had received a good deal of benefit from the instruction.