Seeds Production

Manawatu Times, Volume 61, Issue 6, 8 January 1936, Page 3

Seeds Production

A GOOD MARKET BUT LOWER PRICES The seeds-growing industry in New Zealand is beginning to have greater attention paid to it than in tho past, and in Marlborough in particular there are large areas under eutlivation for the purpose of seed production. What the possibilities of the industry are was the subject on which Mr C. W. Parker recently talked to a Marl borough Express representative, Mr Parker, who is in a well-known Blenheim seed linn, having just returned from a visit to Great Britain. He said that in his opinion there was reason for confidence in the future of New Zealand’s seeds market, but growers would have to be satisfied with somewhat lower prices owing to increased competition, notably from ContineutaJ countries.

"After seeing plant breeding and research stations in Englaud, Wales, and Australia,” said Mr Parker, "I am satisfied that the New Zealand Department of Agriculture is a live concern and is doing great work for New Zealand seed production in developing high quality strains of seed.-; We are as up to date as anybody. I have come to the conclusion that New Zealand has a good future for her seeds trade, but we can’t expect to get tho high prices that have ruled in the past. We can probably hold moro of the trade than any other producing country on account of our superior quality, purity of strain, and higher germination, but we shall have to be prepared to accept world parity. While we can more than hold our own in quality our seeds will be preferred, so we need not dread the new coru'ptition that has come on the scene to the same extent that we might have done if our seeds were not so much better than others.” Continental Competition

The seed market was not in a very buoyant state when Mr Parker was at Home, the reason being over production. There had been heavy harvests in Britain, and also in Europe. Hungary was a newcomer to the pea trade, and, with cheap production costs as a result of the share-farming system, was a rival who would havo to he considered in tho future. A lot of peas were also being grown in Morocco. "We are up against strong competition,” said the speaker, "but from my observations our quality is equal to the best, if not better than that, of any other country. For one thing, we have no diseases or pests, and we must strive to keep a clean bill of health, too.

“In the Old Country and on tho Continent peas suffer severely from the ravages of a caterpillar -which penetrates the pod aud leaves little holes drilled in the peas. From 10 to 20 per cent, of tho crops are affected, and the peas have to be hand-sorted or passed through a specially-designed machine that takes out the holed peas. If tho production in Europe is going to increase it may be serious because the present over-supply has depressed the market at Home, and is the main reason for tho lower contract prices offered Marlborough farmers this season. One bright spot on the horizou is the fact that competition will not be serious from Victoria, Australia, because, apparently, the growers there are having difficulty in maintaining the strains. If they cannot retain type and quality they will not be serious rivals.” Small Seeds

Touching the matter of small seeds, Air Parker stated that the market for clovers "was very poor, with prices low. When he left New Zealand the price of machine-dressd cowgrass was 120 s: in England European seed was worth G3s. It was believed in the Dominion that there was a shortage of seed at Home, and merchants here were offering Is a lb for farmers’ dressed. But on arrival in England he found that, far from a shortage, thera was an over-supply. The opinion here was that the drought at Home would have affected the yield, but in fact the heavy land like that rounfi abou; Spring Crock and Grovetown had seeded much better than usual.

At the plant breeding station at Aberystwyth, Wales, Mr Parker spent half a day with Air Willie Davies, who was lent by the Welsh institution to the New Zealand Government to co-operate in plant research work in tho Dominion some five years ago. ‘’l was very interested in the trial plots of various grasses and clovers, and was pleased to see that New Zealand seeds were holding their own against competition in purity of strain, growth,

and so on,” Mr Parker remarked. “I saw only one line of ryegrass equal to New Zealand; New Zealand cocksfoor was as good as any other in the tests, and other Dominion grasses were also holding their own, proving successful against the seeds of other countries." Mr Parker found at the Cambridge testing -station, an Institution used chiefly for testing seeds for the trade, that New Zealand seed returned results on the score of purity and germination well above the average, the high germination being the result of the sunny .climate in which the seeds were raised.

At the Kolthawstead Institute, of which Lord Bledisloo was at one tilin' the chairman, the visitor saw interesting experiments in wheat grown ou the same land over a period of eighty years. Valuable results were achieved in manurial experiments, while there was one area where no manuro had been used. The wheat ou that patch was pretty sick —but it was growing! On reaching Australia Mr Parker spent some time at the Burnley Experimental Station conducted by the Victorian Department of Agriculture. This was carried ou along the same lines as the similar institution in New Zealand. Incidentally, Mr Parker mentioned that there was no threat «o New Zealand’s red clover market from Victoria as they had no bumble bees there and could therefore continue to bo seed-buying rather than a seedproducing State. After seeing the plant and seed stations in Britain and Australia, Mr Parker, ou his way down from Auckland after returning from abroad, visited the plant research station ar Palmerston North, and had the explained to him by the Government agristologist, Mr Bruce Levy.