FARMERS TOP-DRESSING

Manawatu Times, Volume LIII, Issue 6735, 11 October 1928, Page 10

FARMERS TOP-DRESSING

SPRING MANURE TRADE. BUSY TIMES ON THE LAND. ' The spread of scientific, farming knowledge, together with cut rates in the past for manures, have resulted in a great increase in top-dressing activity. It is apparent from sales made during the winter and up to the present, by manure companies and merchants, that the 1927-2 S top-dressing movement is carrying its impetus well into the current farming season. The manager of a company manufacturing phosphatic manures said that the demand was exceedingly good for this time of the year. The height of the top-dressing period of the year was past, and the fact that manures were still freely sought, even though part of the purchases were for delivery early in 1929, indicated that farmers were ■ spreading their manuring more evenly over the 12 months, , There appeared to be a growing tendency to manure during the grass-growing period as well as at other times. North Auckland was developing as a manure-consuming district, and since the extension of the Bay of Plenty railway line many more tons of topdressing had been sent in that direction. While farmers bought manure generously during the "fertiliser war,” with its attendant low prices last year, it is evident that the increase in production resulting from revitalising and "-feeding” the soil are ihcreasing]y persuading the man on the land that "it is worth while.” Experts say that the progressive increases in production of dairy produce in this province are proportionately in excess of the number of cows milked. It is a result toward which the enrichment of pasture makes a very substantial contribution.