FARM NOTES.

Thames Star, Volume LXI, Issue 16277, 22 January 1927, Page 10

FARM NOTES.

AGRICULTURAL INVESTIGATION

ITS INTERPRETATION

ALMS AND LIMITATIONS

THE FARMER’S RESPONSIBILITY

Fortunately for the farmer and the can.se of agriculture generally there lias developed in New Zealand an intimate co operation between the man on the land and those who sire engaged in working out for him the problems of soil fertility, plant and animal adaptability, plant and animal selection and nutrition, and the hundred and one other phases of farm economics. Jn countries where the farm has been operated without a proper appreciation of the scientific branches upon which it is based, agricultural sentime it has soon become dwarfed, and there has. quickly been apparent a drifting away from the farm because of its great burdens and small returns. It must he admitted that in recent years farming in New Zealand has tended towards this end, and similarly it is an indisputable fact that the endeavours of the Department, of Agriculture, through its several branches, have been largely instrumental in checking a tendency which hade fair to have disastrous results. And farmers to-day owe no small debt to the officers of that department who spare neither time nor trouble in their eagerness to serve the man on the land.

The attitude of pioneer settlers in New Zealand towards agricultural investigation in the early days was not so such due to indifference as to the fact that pressing practical problems concomitant with pioneer settlement left litle time on tehir hands. While we to-day may regard it as criminal negligence that more attention was not paid in the past to the conservation of soil fertility, we must remember the different conditions under which our forefathers worked. And when we have considered the matter from this point of view, it should become increasingly clear to us all that it revolves upon the present and future generations to right the many wrongs resulting from past practices in agriculture.

The growth of agricultural investigation has been proportional to the decrease in soil fertility, and it is evident from the results already attained that many of the evils of our agricultural life are directly traceable to the. poverty of the soil in vegetable matter and plant food and to its utter lack of those properties characteristic of a soil in fine condition.

While the question of proper soil conditions is an old one, it is also of the first and greatest importance in all branches of farming. The study of the habits and characteristics of farm crops has •encouraged the recommendation and practice of a rotation system. Our knowledge of the evanes cent nature of the important elements of plant food in the soil certainly warrants such a rotation as will provide foi the handling of a maximum number of live-stock on each farm. A. succession of the same crops Ipis dire results which need no amplification. The insufficiency of commercial fertilisers when used alone on soils impoverished by a single-crop system, on a too limited lotation has led to many acres of land being abandoned to tho cultivation of unprofitable crops, and it is here that we find one of tjie important functions of agricultural investigation. Fertilising, topdressing and crop-rotation are measures of great importance and yet of comparatively recent recognition and it is the aim of those who are endeavouring to assist the farmer to foster a keener interest and more widespread adoption of these principles. Agriculture is not based upon a single principle or governed by asingle condition. It is a business which involves al Ithe laws governing the mineral, plant, and animal kingdoms, and the sooner we realise that a solitary sovereign panacea for all farm ills, problems, and burdens is impossible, mythical and unscientific the better it will be for the agricultural life of the country. Agricultural investigation is certainly pursued only hv the few, but tile results are restricted only by the limitations placed upon their broadcasting by the lack of interest or receptivity of those on which behalf the investigation lias been c aae That definite laws have been determumd in the selection, breeding, and nourishment of plants and animals is of little value unless they are accepted, understood, and utilised by plant and animal produeers. The discovery of 'emcrjies for diseases of stock or crops, the evofor diseases of stock or crops, tli<> wlution of inexpensive methods ol saving time and trouble and waste }re valuable only in proportion to the number of growers who take the opportunities provided. Many hundreds of ex a moi 2 s of the relation of investigations in agriculture to production could be cited to prove the value o fthe work and tho need tor the general application of the principles involved, but it is unnecessary to do so. The country surely realises the importance of experimental work, but it is doubtful whether Rumors generally recognise the fact that it is a duyt they owe to themselves and to their fellows to lost no opportunity of profiting by investigations and ex. perience of those who have already achieved and are still achieving great things for the first industries of the country.

FARM JOTTINGS

NEWS AND NOTES

The second wool sale of the season at Wanganui will he held on Friday next. The New Zealand Wool Cominittee has evtended the allocation of 5000 bales, making the total number of bales to be submitted 25,000, and there seems to’ be plenty of wool coming in. The recent heavy rains did serious damage to some of the newly sown fields of rape and turnips (reports the

Timaru Herold), having washed considerable portion of both crops and soil away from places where tho crops had been grown on step faces. The Hon. A. D. .McLeod, Minister of Lands, stated recently that in his opinion the AYairarapa. apart from Southland, was one of the soundest districts financially in the Dominion. In Canada, in 1909 there was 57,000 acres of lucerne, while in 1924 there were 400,000 acres. In the United States the increase has been even more remarkable, for while the area was 2,000,000 acres in 1900. it has been increased to 10,500,000 m 1924. Many chemical methods of determining lime requirements are known, but these only estimate the amount of lime which a soil will absorb under certain prescribed laboratory conditions and that may bear no relation whatsoever to the actual need of the soil or the plant for lime. The present season will be an exceptionally good one for grass seed in North Otago. White and red clover are in abundance, while a splendid harvest of Western Woltlis and perennial ryegrass is promised. Cocksfoot is not grown in as large quantities as some years ago. but what there is ofit is vigorous and well headed. Canterbury farmers have experienced a very satisfactory laumbing season, as the following example will illustrate on one of the biggest farms in the province:—A line of 1600 ewes had 130 per cent, of lambs, and the whole 3000 ewes in the farm averaged 120 per cent, of lambs. Feed is plentiful everywhere, and stock are generally in first-class condition. A midCanterbury farmer reports unusual cases of prolific breeding among his ewejs this season. Two of his ewes had four lambs each, while at least a dozen more ewes presented their owner with triplets. Devonshire farmers make more money out of their poultry and eggs than they do from their wheat crop, yet they possess less than one hen to the acre of agricultural land in the country. They are being asked to ineieaso the he i pep ilati.m to at least six per acre.

An excellent trade was done last year in stud rams of the South Devon breed, which are becoming very popular all over Cornwall, and are finding their way into Dorset and other counties. In a sale at Totnes 69 such -rams -realised £765/18/6, at Liskeard 23 head made £254/13/9, at South Brent 55 head brought £484. while at Truro 21 rams realised £225/9/9.

(Train growers will be pleased to learn that they are to ge cheaper cornsacks tliis year than they were able to get last year. The price of the 46in sack will be 1/5. and of the 48in sack 1/8, and the buying-back will be 2d less tha-n these prices. Very few 46’s are -being imported this year, an effort being made to get a uniform size in. use. The two boats which are bringing them left Calcutta on December! 5 and 8. respectively, and are now in New Zealand waters.

MOLE DRAINING

MODERN IMPLEMENTS

Autumn is the period oi the year to have all land drains looked to, so that the grass and plough lands may be given an opportunity of weathering well through the winter. The British Ministry of Agriculture asks farmers to consider the advisability of mole draining their land. The essential feature of this system is the use of a cartridge-shaped piece of steel which is drawn through the sub-soil in its passage, leaving a channel down which the drainage water runs. The narrow slit to the top of tho soil cut by the coulter usually soon closes up and the water passes into the mole drain by percolation through the surface area on both sides. The mole drains have outlets either into a main drain or an open ditch. Farmers should bear in mind, however, that mole draining is not successful on every type of soil. There must be plasticity. " Sand, gravel, or very light friable soils are as a rule unfitted for this system. Soils which respond best to moledraining should have clayey sub-soils and ia iieavy top-soil, and the life of the drains will depend much upon the stiffness of the land. With the introduction of the farm tractor there lias come the production of mole-draining implements suitable for tractor haulage, and this method has created -a new phase of mole-drain-ing and has also cheapened the proC& Tractor mole-drainers may cost £lO to £2O, and a powerful tractor, kept in good running order, may drain up to fifteen acres » day, under favourable conditions.