CROP DISEASE

Hokitika Guardian, 21 September 1937, Page 1

CROP DISEASE

TURNIPS AND SWEDES BENEFICIAL USE OF BORAX A ouro for 'a disease which lias seriously affected turnip and swede crops on the W r est Coast for many years has now been discovered. The use of borax in fertiliser mixtures has been proved effective, according to Mr R. McGillivray, Fields Superintendent of the Department of Agriculture. Mr McGillivray, who has just returned from an official visit to the West Coast, said yesterday that mottled heart disease which had troubled growers of turnips ana swedes on the West Coast for a number of years appeared now fo have been completely overcome. The disease had been known on the W T ost Coast for the past thirty years, but for many it was only very slight. During the last fourteen or fifteen years, however, many crons had been so badly affected with the disease that they were greatly reduced in feeding value and in some cates rotted away. The use of wood ashes where the land was dressed at the rate of a ton an acre was fount; to control the disease fairly well fop a number of years, but of more recent years that treatment had not proved effectiveA SERIES OF TRIALS ."Three years ago the Department of Agriculture sot out to try borax ns a controller of the disease ana results in small trial plots were completely successful,” Mr McGillivray said. "This to large trials being laid down two years ago and again this past season ; results in all cases appear to have been fully» successful. "Clean crops have been grown where b’oi'ax was used and in cases where just an ordinary fertiliser mixture was employed there are cni|„ showing that every bulb lias been infected with mottled heart. When the turnip is cut across, the inside is a b l 'own mass, although the outside of the bulb looks quite healthy. "Last season in one case on the West Coast a strip in which borax was used in the fertiliser mixture was sown rbdit no the centre pi a ten-ac.ro field. The rest of the field was manured with ordinary mixture and when an investigation was made in the early winter it was found that the only roots free from disease were those grown on the strip where borax was used,” Mr McGillivray added that it was thought that the disease was peculiar to the West Coast, but it was now established that it was present in practically all parts of New s Zealamt, although there were only certain districts where it was bad to any extent. But as time went on there was evidence that the disease was increasing in nearly all districts. Farmers of°course, had the cure in their own hands, and if they were prepared to use a certain amount of borax in the fertiliser mixture, the difficulty could bo completely overcome.