IRRIGATION EXPERIMENTS

Taranaki Daily News, 15 July 1933, Page 9

IRRIGATION EXPERIMENTS

BEARING ON SMALLER FARMS MINISTER’S VISIT TO CANTERBURY. COSTS OF SCHEMES IMPORTANT. PROSPECTS OF HIGH PRODUCTION. By Telegraph—Press Association. Ashburton, Last Night. Irrigation experimental work at Seafield conducted by the Lands Department was inspected to-day by the Hon. E. A. Ransom, Minister of Lands. Mr. Ransom said much of the light land in Canterbury could be brought to a state of high production by irrigation. The experiments he inspected, he said, were being made on poor land; he would like to see similar work conducted on Some of the richer land, indeed on a variety of land to ascertain the most economical ways of irrigating.

Excellent results had been achieved in central Otago but the costs had been high and many settlers had not, or apparently had not been able to meet them. It was little use going on with schemes if the costs were not met. Mr. Ransom expressed the hope that Something would be done in Ashburton county as it was his intention to put men on smaller areas than the average farm, and irrigation would help hini do it.