JERSEY FARM METHODS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19280, 19 March 1926, Page 16

JERSEY FARM METHODS.

SOUTH ISLAND EXPERIMENTS.

Mr.' H. K. Barrett, headmaster of the Cobden School, Greymouth, writes: "I was much interested in the account of 'I arming in Jersey,' as published in your paper recently. In our potato experiments at school here we have been using a potato box for some years past, but its dimensions are somewhat different from the Jersey one.. We make ours from benzine cases, using the thick ends the box 21in. long. The sides are Sin from the box ends, 14 by 7, and making high and the ends being. Tin. high allow for packing as ir. tho Jersey box. Convenient holes are bored in the ends for handles.

"Wo have just completed another ' Jersey ' experiment. The object was to find out the value of seaweed as a fertiliser. Two years ago, in February, 1924, we selected a poor piece of the school ground and in one half of this area we bnried about a foot deep a quantity of seaweed. Rows of potatoes wero planted in the following spring across both plots, and the results for the first years were negative—there being in difference) between the plots. It was policed, however, that while stirring the soil during growth that the seaweed had not completely decayed. The experiment was continued for a second year, 1925, and the results were most marked. The potatoes from the seaweed plot were of a good sample, clean and true to type, while those from the control plot were' small and blightly. The difference in y.eid was even more marked. The King Edward variety yielded at the rate of 5 tons 4cwt. 3qrs. per acre, with seaweed, and 1 ton 12cwt. lqr. 171b. without. Snowdrop, 5 tons Bcwt. and 2 tons Bcwt, 221b. Gamekeeper, 5 tons 13cwt. lqr. 171b., with seaweed, while the control plot results were too poor to weigh. Sutton's Supreme, 7tons, 6cwt- and 2 tons Bcwt. 2qrs. 111b."