AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENTS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume II, Issue 46, 7 February 1912, Page 5

AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENTS

IMPORTANT TO FARMERS. (BY TELEGRAPH- SPECIAL. ] (Own Correspondent). Wellington, Feb. 6. In the South and North Islands the Department of Agriculture has lately been conducting an expensive series of experiments in connection with the growing cf cereals and glass?:;. To give an idea cf the nature cf the work,.it is only necessary to say that experiments arc being carried out on no less than 175 farm: and over' 5100 plots have been laid down in different localities. The Department supplies the seed and fertilisers free of cost, and the farm ers do tb.e work under the direction of ’he Director cf Field Experiments.

The Minister (the Hon. T. Mackenzie) who has returned from a visit to the MacKenzie Country, informed a “Post” reporter that during his stay in the south he had ar opportunity cf seeing many cf the experimental plots, particularly ir. th? MaeKenzie Country. Here the experiments are chiefly concerned with the problem of regrassing huge areas that have become depleted of pasturage. “Whilst.” be said.

“th e -rc have been a number of failures, it is clear that with cocksfoot. prairie grass. fescue, and phalaris commutata. a great result w ; !l be a-hicved. The position is that to a large extent in the interioi of the Waitaki Country and Otago Central, the vegetation has disappeared. This is due to firing, overstocking and the rabbit pest.” Expei iments are being carried cut in connection with some eighty dif‘ ferent varieties of plant? for the purpose of seeing whether the Depart ment can establish some deep-root-ing, drought-resisting and frostdefying plant, that will restore the vegetation .of these denleted regions.

Experiments are also being trien by way of enclosure, the Minister believing that rest will bring about the re-establishment of certain native grasses. "Where plantations have been made and closed in,” said the Minister, “it is amazing the growth of native grasses that has taken place. A portion of the country that looked like a desert is now carrying native grasses where it had been rested.’ ” DISEASE IX GRASSES. Sydney, Feb. 1. In the Manning and Stewart’s River districts, X.S.W., a fungous disease appeared m many cf the pastures during the late spring. It appeared on all classes of grasses gnd clovers, excepting paspalum, in small circular patches of a foot or so in diameter throughout the paddocks. The leaves were covered with masses of dark smut-like spores; but with the advent of the hot dry weather the trouble abated somewhat. Specimens were forwarded to the Bureau of Microbiology, and it has been identified as Physarum cincrcum. This organism produces a jelly-like, flowing, slowlymoving mass of variable form. It creeps over herbage, ascending the stems, covering them with a brownish Inver, in which numerous thin white flakes of chalk are visible. Vast numbers of round violet spores are produced later. As the fungus ’■i its growth may do harm-to the plants over tvhich it travels, its detraction is desirable ; anil where possible burning is suggested as the most hopeful remedy. As tins d’s- . tse is m w to. the district it is not known with certainty what are its effects upon sleek that eat grasses aff.-ctc ! with ; t.