Canterbury Land

Te Puke Times, 16 September 1932, Page 3

Canterbury Land

Too Muoh Manure

“Land in Canterbury bas become so stimulated by the use of superphosphates that all the fertility has been stimulated out of the soil” said Mr J. Dunlop, in the Assessment Court recently. A witness had stated that in order to grow crops at his farm at Rangiora it was necessary to let the land lie fallow, or out of use for a year to let it recuperate. “Now the land has deteriorated to such an extent that to grow a crop it costs more than the crop will be worth to put in manures to bring the ground up to the requisite fertility,” continued Mr Dunlop. “The shallow land in Canterbury has been exhausted, and it has become necessary to resort to the methods of fifty years ago to bring it into production. “The witness said that red-top regularly appeared on the land, and it is a well-known faot that this weed will grow where nothing else will grow,” he concluded. Mr Dunlop appeared as assessor for the Rangiora County Council, and is considered an expert on farming in Canterbury. Mr W. Cunningham, Government assessor, said that in spite of what Mr Dunlop had said, a study of the figures pertaining to wheat yields over the past few years showed that there was no drop in the amount grown.