SHEEP FARMING

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 156, 3 June 1937, Page 10

SHEEP FARMING

LECTURES AT MASSEY COLLEGE. The annual gathering of sheep farmers was continued at Massey College to-day. Tho first lecture to-day was given by Mr R. Waters, who reviewed the operations of the fleece testing department especially in regard to analyses of the experiments conducted to date. The speaker used lantern slides for the whole of his address and dealt with many phases of the work. At the conclusion Mr Waters emphasised that he desired to bring his work into contact with that of the breeders in a quiet manner. He did not want to experiment —unless expressly asked to do so. What he wished to do was to give the breeders a method of improving their flocks in regard to the elimination of hairiness. Subterranean clover was dealt with by Mr L. YV. Gorman, of the Grasslands Division of the Plant Research Station. He gave ia commentary on a sories of lantern slides, in detail, and explained that about 100 different tests had been carried out in three years. The types had been divided into four sections, according to their time of main growth and .length of growth. In the course of his address the speaker said that it appeared that the commercial strain of the Mount Barker species was the most affected by leaf rust. The Mount Barker seed was now coming into New Zealand freely, and the Tallarook was also reaching here in commercial quantities. For pasture purposes, the speaker said tha.t a mixture of Mount Barker and Tallarook would give the early growth of the former with the later and very heavy continued production of the latter. There was not a definite scheme of certification of seed in Australia, whence the seed came, and farmers had to rely on the integrity of the merchants. It was expected, however, that a greater measure of certainty in that regard would soon be offered New Zealand buyers. It was generally recognised, he said, that subterranean clover and superphosphate went hand Last evening Mr YV. Al. Webster, of Massey Agricultural College, submitted a progress report on research into the problem of sterility in rams and Mr § A. R. Mair. engineer of the Rangitikei County Council, gave a lecture on concrete posts.