IN THE GRIP OF USELESS GROWTH

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19571, 18 August 1933, Page 4

IN THE GRIP OF USELESS GROWTH

DETERIORATION OF LANDS. Discussing the deterioration of hill country grassland, Mr W. J. McCulloch, of the Fields Division of the Department of Agriculture, Palmerston North, in a paper read at the New Zealand Grassland Associations conference stated that of the 11,000,000 acres cleared and surface sown, about 4,000,04 had rapidly deteriorated, and were now more or less iri the grip of secondary forest or other useless growth. It seemed problematical whether a fight to save this country would prove economically sound. Mr McCulloch traced the development of hill country, and said that as the present existence of the fat lamb trade in the North Island was dependent on the annual drafts of aged cast ewes from the hill country, it was only reasonable to suggest that if the mother of the fat lamb was lowered in quality and breeding efficiency, it would certainly be reflected in the fat lamb trade.

“Personally, I feel that the future improvement of hill country sheep farming will be a combination of feeding avid of breeding, and of the two, I feel that the management of hill country pastures easily presents the greatest problem in New Zealand today," said Mr McCulloch. "From my own observation it seems to me that leaders in the sheep industry to-day talk incessantly of breeding, but seldom of feeding. Is the problem of improving, or even holding, the hill country grassland so great that it cannot be faced? I feel that there is an urgent call for vigorous investigation in the hope that some method of management may assist in improving these pastures.”

He suggested that when the possibility of improvement of the hill country production was being studied, the methods that had assisted in bringing about increased dairying production seemed to be worthy of consideration. Much of the progress that had been made in dairying had been attained by studying the grass-farming methods and allied practices of the dairyfarmers obtaining good results, and then by disseminating effectively the knowledge thus acquired among the great body of dairyfarmers. It seemed very likely that a parallel procedure in respect of the sheepfarming of hill country that previously carried bush, would be productive of valuable results.