TRY TARES

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIII, Issue 103, 12 April 1933, Page 13

TRY TARES

AN ALTERNATIVE CROP. IN PLACE OF RAPE AND CHOU MOELLIER. Yet another crop is suggested as an alternative crop for rape and chou moellier. To date the crops that have been suggested are field peas and silver beet. Now Mr George E. Merrikin, of Hatuma, proposes that tares should solve the problem, or at least alleviate the position. In his letter Mr Merrikin says that he has tried silver beet, and he has not found it successful. Quoting the remarks of a friend of his, Mr Merrikin says that silver beet is not so good as a drink of water. The uselessness ot this plant was exposed at the Moumahaki Farm 24 years ago. It was then being boomed by an officer of the Department of Agriculture. On its being tested at Ruakura, several purebred Southdown hoggets died of pure starvation rather than eat silver beet. Tares, otherwise known as vetches, are most commonly associated in the minds of most people with the parable of the tares in the Gospel of St. Matthew, and for fodder and manuring purposes vetches play an important part. For beth purposes vetches are mixed with a cereal crop, usually barley, as the cereal holds the crop off the ground and facilitates harvesting if the crop is to be harvested. Vetches can either be fed off or else cut while in the green stage. There is, however, very little second growth whichever method of utilisation is adopted. The crop will stand a great deal of cold, but it is not recommended for autumn sowing, particularly on heavier soils. It thrives very well in the warm spring and summer weather. Sown at the rate of from 14 to two bushels of seed per acre and drilled into the ground, the seed will germinate well. Vetches constitute a very handy catch crop and for this purpose they are greatly esteemed in other parts of New Zealand. The main difficulty that would arise in connection with the raising of such a crop in Hawke’s Bay, according to Mr Merrikin, would be the obtaining of the seed and also the heavy price that is frequently demanded for it when obtainable.