A Japanese Example.

Northland Age, Volume VIII, Issue 25, 9 February 1912, Page 5

A Japanese Example.

A Lesson in Plant Selection. On » mound of iom« twenty acres of •oil In a raupo in amp on the ftin(t Of Lake Waikare, in the Auckland district, a Japanese settler Is demonstrating in a striking mannar what may be done by combining business methods with just ordinary culture practice. He is producing strawberry runners for the growers of the succulent berry in the northern province with so much success that his operations are affording him an excellent income. His quaint little holding cost him the modest sum of .£124 ios, and there may be seen a strawberry paradise. Not that his methods of growing the berries are exceptional, but for size and Savour it would be difficult to imagine anything better. His success is entirely due to his observance of the principle which to-day is the main key-note to advanced proSts in all rural pursuits—selection, whether of animals or plants. He does not take runners indiscriminately from his plants, but having secured a good variety—an improved Marguerite—he carefully notes the heaviest bearing plants and these bearing the Snest benies. These are marked and in due time are transplanted to a special bed. It is enly from this bed of special plants that runners are taken. The fame of T. Noda as a supplier of runners, which can be depended upen to give heavy crops of the best marketable fruit, has spread throughout the province, and he has now more orders than he can supply. To know that every runner can be depended upon to improve the yield and quality is a compelling argument in favour of patronising the little Japanese runner producer. In the season of supplying runners he employs from foity to fifty Maoris, and this season he has booked orders representing ,£4OO. This Vjapauese settler, an intelligent little nmu, deservedly popular in the district, and one of the best rifle shots in the district, has been in New Zealand lor nearly thirty years. He has worked in a flaxmill and in pumice works. He did not come well out of a partnership with a European, and was handicapped for capital when he took up his present venture. The secret of his success is, as mentioned above, the observance of the simple rule which is one of the foundation stones of improved agriculture—selecting the best plants he grows for perpetuation of the species. It is a powerful lesson of the money value of this idea to the most humble tiller of the soil. The world demands improved plants and fruits, and the production ef these is the best means at the command of the farmer for increasing the profit from his soil without increasing the area of his holding.