WHEAT AND RAIN

Greymouth Evening Star, 10 November 1923, Page 5

WHEAT AND RAIN

ROTH A MSTEAI?R ESEAK Cl IES. ■ (Ai®tralian and N.Z. Cable Association.) .LONDON, November 8. ' A proposal to push Australian i wheat-growing beyond the len ,n ' yearly rainbelt was discussed to day at . the Rbyal 'Society’s 'meeting (in a , paper by Sir John Rnsse . head f the Rothamstead Agricull oral Re- , search Stotion, mi the influence <> ; rainfall on wheat yields He stated that, while Sir Napier Shaw, m 1906, ; and Hooker in 1907, found a. correlation between the yield of wheat ami the previous autumn rainfall, especia'ly during October he had found, <>n studying critically the Rothamstead results extending over 70 years, that otitumn rain was beneficial to certain ‘ ami less deleterious to other plots c than rain at other times. The dif- > f ering results were due to <i dificience - between experimental and comnier- ; cial grazing, because in a wet autumn a the farmers put in crops other than I wheat, on a. large proportion of hold- - ituis. It. was not, impossible for farin- - ers Io adapt their manorial treatment . to wet, or dry seasons.