FOOD PRODUCTION.

Otago Witness, Issue 3275, 20 December 1916, Page 10

FOOD PRODUCTION.

It is unnecessary to harp on the string of the necessity for increased food production within the Empire at the present time. We, all of us, realise how paramount it is; but- the question is how in the present circumstances can an increased quantity of food be raised ill this country? The probable scarcity of labour is alleged to have had its effect on the decreased area sown this season in wheat, the most important foodstuff grown, as with the best will in the world a farmer cannot properly handle an increased area in wheat unless sufficient suitable labour is available to carry out the necessary operations. That is perhaps the main factor in lessening the area sown in this important cereal, together perhaps with the fact that the price is not assured. It is inevitable that farmers will have to school themselves to using unskilled labour and make the best use of the available material whether experienced or rot. The aim of the enterprising and patriotic farmer, eager to help his country and to make the most out of the existing exceptional- position, should be to farm in such a way as to increase the productiveness of his crops, whether cereals, hay, or root crops, to the greatest extent. The liberal use of artificial manures, the 'careful selection of seed, the thorough preparation of the soil, both the surface soil and the under layer, so as to assure a fine firm seedbed, may be termed the three main factors in increasing the production per acre, and so making it feasible to produce a bigger yield from a smaller acreage. It won't certainly get over the difficulty of harvesting, but it may possibly enable the crops to be bandied with greater care, besides enabling one to carry more stock on the farm, and to give one's attention to top-dressing second-class pasture lands. These are ways in which the labour shortage might be met if farmers and the Government organised what is available. Grass lands in this country have never received the same attention as tillage crops. Manurial experiments in all parts of England have gone to show that a marked improvement can be effected by the use of manures even on some of the poorest soils. The experiments of Dr Somerville fully confirm the advantages to be derived from the application to grass lands of suitable fertilisers, particularly basic slag or superphosphate. Thus he wrote:—"During the past 20 to 30 years extensive areas of grass land have been treated with phosphatic manures, notably basic slag, and the results have in the great majority of cases left a large profit. It would have been well for farmers and for the nation if every acre of grass land known to respond to treatment had been dressed with phosphates—slag or superphosphates—but, unfortunately, plenty of instances are known whore a farmer has doubled and even quadrupled the meat and milk-producing power of his grass land, and has converted poor herbage into a tangle of white clover, and yet his neighbour on the other side of the fence has been content to leave his pasture unimproved." These are not isolated instances, but confirm the findings of experimental stations in the North, East, South, and West of England, and have proved also that not only has the weight and quality of the herbage improved, but the increase has been progressive, and the results are better than in the earlier years of the experiment. The benefit of phosphatic manures is more evident on old than on green grass. In some instances where there has been a dearth of nitrogenous fertiliser it may be advisable to apply, say, sulphate of ammonia or Peruvian guano or farmyard manure. Word comes from the United States that the example of English farmers in top-dressing second-class pastures has been followed "with good results. It was noted by the author that the preference for the forage of the treated plot? resulted in their being more closely grazed late in autumn tlian was favourable to their best development. Nevertheless a thick mat of clover appeared the following spring in place of a dull, lifeless, mossinfested turf. In other pasture tests on mowing land at the station, the yield of grass hay was rather more than doubled by the rise of suitable top-dressings. The proportion of clover was increased. Alto gether the experiments suggest that trial applications of basic slag, or of superphosnhatcs and lime, would be dtsirable for farmers owning second-class land. Stock should be kept off until the herbage has been washed by rain. Certainly before breaking un grass land into cultivation again, one should realise that inferior grass lands have been vastly improved by the use of basic slag, lime, etc., and consider if it is not worth while in view of the want of labour of trying some pasture treatment.