FARM RESEARCH

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27447, 21 July 1950, Page 8

FARM RESEARCH

Experimental Work At Invermay

Work is progressing at the farm research and experimental station at Invermay. On the 260 acres of first class flat land, wheat variety trials are being conducted, certification tests are being carried out on 140 varieties of potatoes, manurial experiments are under way, peas are being grown for canning, limited variety trials with linseed are being conducted, and swede turnips are being grown.

Next year, it is intended that cocksfoot and timothy should be sown as an experiment. Some of the first class land is also to be sown in permanent pasture for grazing.

will be of vital interest to the whole farming community. There are about 600 acres of land in its natural state, where browntop and introduced gorse are growing, and the intention is to investigate the economics of treatment needed to bring it into production. This land, too, is typical of third-class or marginal land to be found elsewhere.

The propagation of bulbs and shrubs, as well as vegetables, is being carried out on the horticultural block at the station.

Swamp ploughing has already been carried out on a part of this land, and “giant” discs have been used, followed by surface planting. In the rough gullies, the planting of trees for shelter'and timber will be carried out next winter. Odd spots about the station are to be planted out for beautification purposes to make Invermay one of the beauty spots of the Taieri. An opportunity exists at Invermay for experiments to be carried out In the nutrition of wool.

On the second class land, of which there are 400 acres, occasional crops of oats are to be planted, but most of it is to be kept in pasture. The aims of the officers of the station are to ascertain how to produce good pasture and how to keep it from running out by strain trials with new species of seeds, and by liming. This land is more or less typical of the secondclass land found elsewhere in Otago and Southland, and the experiments