King Country Chronicle. Thursday, November 7, 1929. TOP-DRESSING.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXIII, Issue 3076, 7 November 1929, Page 4

King Country Chronicle. Thursday, November 7, 1929. TOP-DRESSING.

The figures we publish in another column giving the amount of fertilisers used the last three years in the various districts of the Auckland Province is a tribute to the Northern King Country in more ways than one. These figures prove that the men at present farming in the district have faith in their land, otherwise they would not have spent large sums in top-dressing their holdings. They also show that men on the land are spending all the money at their disposal in improving their properties and that money spent in this way is going to give a valuable return. While expenditure in this direction may mean many immediate sacrifices, it is going to stabilise the position, not only of the individual, but the whole district, and will prove the best banking account in the end. Even to the layman it is quite apparent that the Northern King Country has undergone a transformation of late years, and this is almost wholly due to the more extensive use of artificial fertilisers. There are few settlers with local experience in the King Country who have lost their faith in the district from a farming point of view, and it would now seem that this faith, after many years of trials and tribulations, is about to be justified. There are still a number of problems to be dealt with in connection with soil content, but the extensive research work carried out by the Agricultural Department has solved some of these, and there is every reason to believe that others will be dealt with in the same satisfactory manner. A recent visitor to the district stated that there were wonderful possibilities for development in the Northern King Country. Local settlers realised this many years ago, and it is for these men to impress the fact upon outsiders by every possible means. It is being realised to a greater extent every day that this district makes a wonderful response to top-dressing, and it is this use of artificial manures which is going to revolutionise farming in New Zealand in a way which will enable the country to meet the position that is likely to arise through the tendency towards falling prices in all primary products.