SEED TESTING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26042, 4 January 1946, Page 3

SEED TESTING

DISEASE IN RYEGRASS SUB-STATION AT TIMARU The Department of Agriculture has set up a branch of the seed testing station at Timaru for the purpose of examining ryegrass seed heads submitted by farmers for the presence of blind seed disease. 44 The unseasonable conditions expeiienced lately have not been altogether favourable for the production of highquality perennial ryegrass seed, said Mr J O. Wallace, fields instructor, Dunedin, to a Daily Times reporter yesterday, “ and the purpose of the substation is to examine samples from crops submitted by growers and to advise them of the probable germination should the crop be harvested for seed. By this means a farmer will gain reliable knowledge of the value of his crop as a seed-producing proposition, and be in the position to decide whether to harvest it for seed or make hay of it.” . Mr Wallace states, that in collecting samples the following points should be observed; —The sample ‘ akan should be representative of the whole crop, and where the crop is ripening unevenly separate samples from the early-ripening and late-ripening sections should be collected and marked accordingly. The sample must be made up of seed heads from a large number of points scattered throughout the field. The procedure recommended in collecting the sample is to walk to and from across the field, stopping every few paces to pick up one seed head at random until a small sheaf composed of 300 seed heads has been collected. , , , The sheaf should then be tied and labelled, superfluous straw trimmed off wrapped tightly in several layers of paper.' and despatched by the earliest mail to the Fields Division, Department of Agriculture, Timaru. Growers are advised to forward samples when the seed is at the middle or late stage of development, and another just before cutting or when the seed is drying in the swath. . No charge is made for this service, and growers of ryegrass seed should, in their own interests, make full use of it, Mr Wallace added. In cases where examination reveals a high infection and the crops have a good undergrowth of clovers it is recommended that they be utilised for hay, particularly as the root crop prospects in some districts are not as good at present as they might be. This is attributed to late sowings on accouht of unfavourable conditions and slow growth for the want of warmth. Ravage of the root crop when in the seedling stage by birds has also been rather severe in some regions.