SCHOOLS

North Canterbury Gazette, Volume 1, Issue 45, 16 June 1933, Page 4

SCHOOLS

This page belongs to the boys and girls of North Canterbury who still go to school. It is an invitation to self-expres-sion and, we- hope, an aid to selfdevelopment. The more freely it is used the more clearly their elders will realise what school life really means.

RANGIORA HIGH SCHOOL Agriculture DISEASE-FREE SWEDE SEED EXTRACTS FROM JOURNALS [By R.E.J., Form. Upper V.Ag.] The swede crop is one of the most important fodder crops for dairy purposes in New Zealand. The crop does well on all soils from the light pumice lands oi the Auckland Province to the heavy clay soils of Southland. It is an essential crop in a well-balanced ration.

The swede is thus of great national importance in maintaining the average stock-carrying capacity of the Dominion. In late years the swede crop has declined considerably, owing to disease. The two diseases of swedes are clubroot and dry rot, which have become so wide-spread in incidence and so destructive in effect that the swede has become an unprofitable and risky crop. At the present time it is not safe to sow the seed in the same patch two years in succession. Too much breaking up of the pasture even when there is sufficient ploughable land available makes the cost of the crop more than it is worth. It is now learnt after a number of years of investigation that: 1. Dry rot infection is carried in the seed. If the disease-free seed is sown on land that has not carried a crop for two or more years, then the seed raised from this crop should be free from disease. 2. Club-root can be practically controlled/'by the use of various strains of swedes. Vilmorin is one of the' safest swedes to grow, because it is highly resistant to club-root. Methods of Production For the last four years experiments have been carried out to select a dryrot and club-root free strain. The swede is a biennial plant which, whether sown in the spring or the autumn, will produce seed the following summer. When spring sown, it will produce a large fleshy bulb, with no lateral roots, and if not attacked by club root will keep through the winter and send up a flowering stalk in the spring. ±he autumn-sown seed will produce a small woody bulb, with well-developed lateral roots, and in spring, runs quickly to seed. The seed head produced by the large fleshy bulb draws its nourishment from the bulb, the roots producing little or nothing to maintain the seed head. Though the flower develops strongly at first yhile there is plenty of food and moisture it becomes weaker as the development proceeds, until, when the seed is forming most of the stored material, is used up before the later seed pods develop. This results in a light undersized crop yield of seed. The bulbs are liable to an attack of rot forming bacteria, and fungi before the seed has matured. It is not practicable to produce seed from these plants but to sow this seed and reap the harvest the following year.

The main seed crop then is. produce-1 from plants grown from mother seed, sown in autumn. Good well-drained soil is essential for this crop. If lea ground is to be used, the curf should be skim-ploughed in January, disced and harrowed till June, then, deep ploughed and thoroughly worked down for planting in late June or the beginning of July. The plants should have plenty of room to develop, a very suitable spacing being 18 inches apart in 4 foot rows. Cultivation should be carried out till the crop is nearly ready to be lifted. The primary flower stalk is topped at about 18 inches in order to promote stronger lateral branching. The best seed is produced by having a plant with a strong root system and sturdy flower stalk. Harvesting and Threshing . Harvesting is done by a sickle, and the heads tied into small bundles. These are laid in windrows and carefully turned from time to time. The crop should be left out for about three weeks, to allow the greener pods to ripen. The crop is generally threshed in the paddock. The threshing is done by hand flails on a large canvas sheet, cleaning being effected by riddles and. a final wind winnowing. Not more than 100 lb. to 150 lb. of seed should be placed in each sack. The sacks should be stacked in such a way as to allow for plenty of ventilation. To produce the best sample it is best to have the yield cleaned on a proper machine. The machine should be well cleaned so that there will be no other diseased seeds left from other samples of seed. The whole harvesting operations should be treated with the ut-

most care because careless handling entails a substantial loss of seed. Constant guard must be kept over the crop, because small birds do considerable damage. Conclusion li New Zealand farmers concentrated on their seed particularly the small farmers, it would save the importations, which amount to the sum of £60,000 per annum. Now, if we can produce this disease-free seed, why should we not open up markets in England and Europe? The growing of this seed will help to provide more work for. men who are out of employing ht. The cost is comparatively low, because no expensive implements are necessary to its production, and there is no reason why New Zealand should not become the best producing country in the world. SKETCH

A Little Misunderstanding

[By \V. McD., Form Upper IV.]

I went for a walk down to the Ashley and there I met a man who said to me, u Cave Canem." I said, "Merci Monsieur," and stepped into a hole in the asphalt. I quickly looked round for a cave leading from it. Seeing none I got out again, and politely asked the man what he was. talking about "caves" and "can'em." He looked at me savagely, and rolling up his shirt sleeves, told me that he would show me no mercy whatsoever.

With a short yell on seeing him advancing towards me, I promptly jumped into the hole again—just in time to miss a well-aimed boot. Being now beyond reach of his legs or arms, I once more looked wildly round for the cave and once again had no luck. So 1 took out my handkerchief and waved it above my head. He saw it and beckoned for me to climb out. "Now," I said, when I reached ground level, "what in the world were you talking about?" "And you, too," he said, looking very suspiciously at me. *'What were you talking about?" "I said, 'Thank you, Sir,' " I. replied "What! Did'nt you say something about asking for mercy?" he exclaimed.

"No, of course not," I replied, "but what did YOU say?"

"I said, 'Beware of the dog'." li 'Beware of the dog!' " I said, stupified. "But didn't you say something about looking for caves in that hole?" "No, of course not, you fool!" he said, grinning. "Ah, well," I replied, leaving him laughing, "ferme la bouche I" CORRESPONDENCE CLUB EXTRACTS FROM LEETERS

(a) From a Czecho-Siovakian Boy: Now some accounts about rne and my job. I am employed in Bata shoe factory. It is the biggest factory of this kind in Europe, perhaps in the whole world. (100,000 pairs of shoes a day). There are here employed about 20,000 of people including 1,500 Aoung boys 14-18 years old. I am eighteen. We boys live in the internates the factory has built for us. There are here young men from Germany, Poland, Yugo Slavia, England, France, and Switzerland, but the most part of us are Czechs.

All day long we work in the factory and in the evenings we attend our special courses which are compulsory for all the boys. We study Mathematics, Chemistry, Book-keeping, and Special Drawing. When we have finished our school we shall be sent abroad. This is the reason we learn foreign languages.

We have some more special courses as commericalj chemical, leather dress-

ing, and industrial. Our .school is governed by the factory council united with the internate staff consisting of our director and all the tutors and teachers. In this board we have our representatives. All the boys are divided into parties containing 100 members, each party has its own tutors and teacher.

We perform athletic games, swimming, volley-ball, table-tennis, boxing, all the winter sports and football above all. Your Rugby football is not much known in this country. We also have a few different clubs: camera, chess, touristic and theatre club. I play football and other athletic games and I like physical drill too. Each party forms several teams and we compete with each other to win the mastership at our Olympiade.

(b) From an American Girl: I live in Ohio, one of the States of the United States. The State Governor is White. We have important, political parties, namely the Republicans and Democrats.

I live in a small town (3,500) of Marysville. I live on a large ranch about 700 acres on the home place. We have other farms in Ohio, a ranch in Idaho and a copper mine in Nevada. We sell hothouse baby lambs. These are lambs which are shipped away to the consumer before they taste grass or grains. They are kept in a wellaired, artificially cooled and heated barn. We ship lambs any time of the year and I believe we are the only place where one can obtain lambs out of season.

I have always pictured New Zealand as a cold, barren country. Perhaps I am wrong.

I like to travel and have done so to

a great extent. My travels have included trips to all parts of U.S., Canada, Cuba, Mexico, and other places.

(c) From a Girl in Ireland (9/4/33): ■ We had Musical Competitions at school the other day between the four School Hous.es —Beech, Holly, Hawthorn, and Oak. (Inc.- dentally I belong to Beech House). The senior girls in each house had to organise their programme entirely without help from the House Mistresses, and I can tell you it was a pretty big undertaking. Our house had quite a varied programme. We had a Junior Brass Band, Junior and Senior Choirs, piano quartettes and duets, violin and 'cello trios, and last, but not least, a flute solo by me!!!!! I don't know whether I told you about my flute! I got it for a present from Mother and Dad, and for some time I couldn't get a single note out of it, though I puffed and blew till I was blue in the face. After persevering for a long time I got the scale, and now I can play quite a lot of simple tunes on it. . . Are you keen on riding? Jean and I just Jove it. Last January she and I were in London for a holiday and we and some other girls hired horses, and had a simply magnificent ride across country, over ditches, hedges, bogs, fields and everything imaginable! I was bestriding a nice little mare with a beautifully narrow back, but with a rather nervous temperament. Once, in a very narrow lane we met a fireengine, and the little mare began to dance about excitedly on her toes. But we both came through safely without any mishap. The misfortune occurred when we met a car speeding along the road toward us. The driver didn't bother to slow down, though I yelled at him and held up my hand. Suddenly my little mare, Joan, made a dash into a field on the left, and galloped away as hard as she could over the grass with me clinging on for dear life. She went hard-a-port for some seconds, and then suddenfy tacked off to starboard. I thought it wasn't much use trying to stick on, so I just flopped off quite softly and gently on to the wet grass! "Hard luck!" yelled the riding-master, tearing across the field after the mure, who, poor thing, looked rather at a loss what to do! He caught her up, and brought her alongside, whilst I staggered drunkenly to my feet and hopped on her back once more. Then we raced all out for home.

We are looking forward to a good sailing season this year. About the middle of last month Daddy and I spent a Saturday sailing in our own small lift, dinghy, "Spindrift." It wasn't a very nice day for a sail—the wind was south, and came down in nasty, flukey gusts, that every now and then veered round to south-east and east, but we had good fun all the same.

(d) From a Boy in California (17/4/33) : i could write a whole volume, on the earthquake and its effects which are still plainly seen altho the major 'quake was 6 weeks ago. But I promise to hit only the high spots and a few personal ones. It came at 5 minutes to 6 p.m. on Friday, March 10 —just as our family was sitting down to dinner. My mother rushed into the front room where the vibrations knocked her to her hands and knees. She got up and went out the front door as soon as possible. My father and I rushed out the back door dodging miscellaneous kitchen items. We were all thoroughly frightened, I admit. The house was a mess. Water all over the kitchen floor flavoured with everything under the sun. We swept it all out and proceeded to the front room. It was worse. I won't attempt a description. By dark we could see the high school a mile away being consumed by fire. We had visions of Los Angeles completely demolished, but later found out only store windows and cornices were broken mainly. Long Beach, 14 miles away, was struck hardest and about 50 were killed. I haven't begun but I'm going to stop because I didn't write to give you an essay on earthquakes. . . . There were many after-shocks of lesser intensity which rather shattered our nerves.

Since it was impossible to hold school in our high school, which was greatly damaged by fire and quake, after a 2 weeks' vacation we went to another high school 2 miles away where we go in the afternoons only while the kids that go there all the time go in the morning. We are comfortably housed but it doesn't exactly seem like home. School now for us is held from noon until five o'clock. Rather late; but time to get home for dinner. SPORT RUGBY FOOTBALL High School 21, Cust Juniors 3. This game was played on the High School ground on Saturday, June 10, and was easily the best exhibition of football the school team has shown this year. The school forwards fed their backs on every possible occasion and the backs indulged in many passing movements. The School winger, Simpson, scored two fine tries early in the game, both as a result of good passing. W. Francis converted one. Near the end of the spell W. Francis fed the opposition with a nice dummy and cut in to score a clever try, which he also converted. At half- time the score was School 13, Cust 0. On changing over Cust put more life into its play, but was unable to get over. Then School threw the ball about again and W. Francis scored another try which Barnes converted. Later School was penalised in front of its goal-posts and Pickering kicked a good goal for Cust. School retaliated with another try scored by Moir, and the game ended without further score. Referee: Mr. J. Rowlands. REPORT OF SOCIAL The usual term-end social, which had been postponed from last term on ao-

count of the inclement weather, was held in the School Assembly Hall last Friday evening, and was. much enjoyed by a large number of pupils and teachers.

The hall was festooned with greenery and streamers in school colours, which formed an attractive setting for the bright fancy dresses worn by many of the girls. The programme, which commenced with "The Grand Old Duke of York," consisted of games and dances interspersed with elocutionary and musical items. Recitations were given by Pat Smith and R. Jackson, and songs by Mr. Strachan and Joyce Goldsbury. Music for the dancing was provided by Misses Hollow, M. Hutchison, and D. Brady, and B. Stevens, W. Maunder and C. Tulley. The Entertainments Committee, with Mr. D. Campbell in the capacity of chairman and M.C., are to be congratulated on a most successful evening.

Oxford District High School

AGRICULTURE [By D.G., Form V.] With the small amount of land available for experimental work it is impossible to carry out anything on a large scale at school. We hope to have about half an acre in plots during the coming season. Plans have been fully discussed, and if all goes well we should have the following under way early in the spring: 1. Inoculum test with red clover on the same lines as an experiment covering a 43-acre paddock at Mr. L. Meyer's farm. 2. Optimum plots of mangolds, turnips, chou moellier and kale, using the information gained last year in manurial, spacing, and variety tests. 3. Variety tests covering several varieties of lucerne obtained from America with a view to determining the one best suited to the Oxford soil and climate. 4. Variety tests of oats and wheat. 5. The cultivation of carrots. 6. Manurial and other tests with some of the newer varieties of potatoes. An experimental nursery plot of fruit trees will also be laid out and a start made on a grass garden. We have had it brought home to us very fuJly thati plot work without a background of farm practice is of little value. We shall continue, therefore, to check up on our plots by visiting and reporting on similar crops in the district. In this way we hope to make up, in some measure, for not having our own farm. On these visits, short addresses on farm animals will be arranged whenever possible. Rangiora Convent School Our football team played Southbrooh on Thursday and won by 26 to nil. The following was the Convent team: R. Andrews (captain), M. O'Neill, V. Bennett, J. Cunningham, A. Winter, L. McGrath, M. O'Connor, M. Small, B. Bennett, K. Matthews, J. O'Carrol, B. o'Carrol. Those who scored tries were. Andrews (3), Winter (2), Cunningham, B. Bennett and V. Bennett. M. O'Neill converted one try.

Last Thursday our Basketball Team played Southbrook and won by 18 to 1. The Basketball Team was beaten by the Borough School by 5 to 6.

Woodend School During the past fortnight the girls and boys have played two matches at basketball. In the first match the girls won, but in the second match, tbe boys enlisted the aid of teachers, and then the girls were beaten. On Friday, June 9, the Oxford School football and basketball teams journeyed to Woodend. In the football Oxford were victorious by 8-3. It was a rather bright open game for the greater part, till in the second half there was a series of line-outs The Oxford boys had a slight advantage in weight, but this was counterbalanced by a fair amount of dash in the opposing backs. Too many heads were in evidence in tight wcrk, boys not having discovered that shoulders are best utilised here. A very keen basketball game was witnessed, and Woodend were the winners by 18-14. Passing throughout on both sides was brisk and clever. We have been fortunate in obtaining a new football and a new basketball, through the kindness of our committee. We are now well equipped for the coming winter. A euchre party was held in t! school on Tuesday, June 12, when about 30 players sat down, at the tables. It is proposed to hold a euchre and dance at the local Hall on Saturday, July 1. Kaiapoi Kindergarten

An innovation for Kaiapoi, at least for some years, is the kindergarten commenced by the Misses Kathleen and Ngaire Matthews. Children from three to six years attend the school and in spite of the frosty mornings seem very keen to get to their studies and games. The kindergarten is conducted in the Oddfellows' Hall, opposite the Borough Hall, Kaiapoi, and at present there is an attendance of 38 children.

Fires are lighted in the hall and everything is done in the real kindergarten way.