HEAVY CROPPING RESULTS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19373, 10 July 1937, Page 13

HEAVY CROPPING RESULTS

“STILL A LOT TO LEARN” A FARMER’S VIEWPOINT Following the publication in Tuesday’s fanning notes of a statement that many farmers were sceptical of the tonnages of winners in the Gisborne mangel competitions, the results of which were announced in the Herald last week, a farmer signing himself “Agrarian” writes to the editor of the Herald as follows:

“The crop of mangels yielding a; the rate of 185 tons to the acre nee;l be no strain on our credulity. With rows 2ft. Sin. apart and the plant 9in. apart—which is not crowdingeach mangel would average 14 1 -31 b in weight, nothing sensational. “Yet a crop, giving one-half the tonnage, is far above the average, and out of it would almost certainly be found roots up to 201 b. This is just an illustration of the space given to dud plants on the best of farms. When one comes to calculate what might be taken oil an acre, as compared with what we look on as a first-rate crop, we are forced to the conclusion that farmers have still a lot to learn. “For instance, a 10-ton crop oi potatoes is considered more than satisfactory. Many farmers will say that three times that weight is impossible, that there would not be room for the tubers. It is so far possible that it should not be uncommon Planted 15in. apart, in rows 30in. apart, each set need only yield 5 l-31b of potatoes to amount to the supposed impossible tonnage. Out of any 10ton crop one could find odd plant; giving far more than 5 l-31b,, but a far greater number so nearly complete duds that they might as well not be there at all.

• “It is the same with any kind of farming one could think of. Perhaps the day will come when farming is as efficiently conducted as other major industries, and then the world’s crops will be three times the present volume without any increase in the area used. It is certain that an enormous area of the world's arable land is being shockingly mistreated by its present holders.”