IMPRESSIONS OF N.Z.

Te Puke Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 61, 2 August 1938, Page 2

IMPRESSIONS OF N.Z.

AN AUSTRALIAN GRAZIER’S

TOUR

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At Palmerston Mr Doake visited the Royal Show, which was held at a different centre each year. The Hereford cattle exhibit ed to be the finest' ever - seen on a New Zealand showground. Although many say that polled Herefords lack bone, a polled bull was placed second in the aged class. The judge said that many polled animals were hard in the hair, and in handling. For the first time at any show he saw pigs paraded ; at least, they were walked into the arena, allowed to muzzle around, and slowly but carefully guided back to their pens. Of particular interest to him were the Southdown sheep. The quality and compactness of the North Island sheep did not altogether appeal to the judge, who hailed from the South Island, where they bred a lengthy type with strong wool, which is said to add an extra pound or two to the lamb. In a moment of admiratiou he purchased a hogget ram, a son of the reserye champion, and a commended *pir of ewe hoggets, along other ewe hoggets. The New Zealand Romneys— tremendous low set sheep # with very heavy fleeces also. / attracted him, but the fat lamb seAjjT' tion was disappointing, New Zeabrpr - lambs being somewhat poor last year as was the case in Australia. The Clydesdales did not appeal, either, being long, leggy animals lacking bone. The Palmerston show had much

to engage Mr Doake’s attention, and while he was in that town he visited the Massey Agricultural College, where Mr Madden, the field officer in charge, showed him over the pasture plots. There he saw halfacre paddocks wEere perennial rye. grass had been sown 9Q lb?, .to the acre alone, 30 teb tfcle aefe/and 25 to the acre with"2lbsr of white clover, ea-h carrying, in rotation, three ‘ cows. The 90 lbs. to the acre rye paddocks showed up wonderfully. They had been sown fourteen months, and looked like five year established stands. Incidentally, he averred, the soil there might be described a 3 a poor silt. Here, also, he saw cows in bails, where they would be kept for twelve months to be tested for taint in milk, all their feed being weighed and calculate 1 on percentage, the only exercise in that time being a run in the concrete yard. The chief plant suspected of badly tainting was suckling clover. Mr Madden was not a great believer in heavy harrowing, his belief being that the only value of harrowing was to spread manure. Mr Madden also had little time for cocksfoot; he would not sow it in any good grass ' mixture. One departmental officer, when asked for any method of getting rid of Yorkshire fog grass, said he was about to advocate' top dressing badly infested pastures with one hundredweight of potash salts, for he was convinced that a surprising change would take-, place. He wa3 a strong believer in ’ the value of lime and super, but could not be led to believe that,they were the only two minerals required, Potash and super top dressed pastures, he considered were better able to withstand extremes of heat and cold than those receiving super alone.

In Taranaki it wis a fairly common practice to top dress with a mixture of super, lime and potash in the autumn, in the ratio of three of super, two of lime and one of potash. This cost of £l/3/6 an acre, and freight, but in this fertile, heavy carrying district they deettied it worth while. In that district, which rarely had a dry summer, they top dressed paddocks, from which hay or ensilage’'.tad been harvested immediately -i after the* crop had been ! At Massey College it was interesting to see 3500 rye grass pfttnts of a new strain, all descendants of one selected rye grass plant. This strain seemed to be remarkably prolific, for Mr Doake did not see more than ten weak plants in a quick glance around. Mr Madden’s views on sulphate of ammonia were interesting. He was a great believer in the use of this fertiliser to rid rye grass of clover. He maintained that it was essential to apply it when the rye grass was from six to eight inches high. It could be put on often if the farmer was careful to see that this state existed, and only to apply it if the ground was wet or rain was certain to come within a brief period. Used in this way, little harm was likely to occur. Applied often, even carefully, it would eventually have a depressing effect temporarily, but would not ruin the pasture. Mr Madden, who was an Australian and knew Yarra Valley district, said he was sure it would pay Yarra Valley 4 farmers to use 50 lbs. of rye to the acre when laying down pastures. Ho told the speaker to ask any Australian farmer visiting New Zealand to look him up at Massey College. An interesting sidelight was added when Mr Doake spoke of a barber he had met at Palmerston North, who was a staunch barracker for the Essendon football team. Surprisingly, this barber had never been in Melbourne ; he was born in Sydney, and’ lived ixi Hobart before he went to NeW ; ‘Zealand. - His' uncle, a Melbourne man, taught him the virtues of Essendph; when he was a boy. ,;-r

Going south again, the Coldstream wanderer left Wellington, and after anight on the water.lie arrived at Christchurch, in North Canterbury; biit the North Island seemed to hold his affection, as, before petfjrnihg* he made a htyried run to Palmerston North, thence through the Wanganui and Taranaki country, on the south-east coast, in the company of three dairy .jfaianera'

mostly occupied by small mixed farming properties, though there were some of the foremost cattle and sheep breeding properties in the North Island. A fair number of red polls seemed to be bred. Wanganui was a very busy town, not unlike Ballarat; and, of course, the Wanganui River was famed for its scenery. To him Taranaki was a most attractive stretch of country, carrying imihertse numbers of sheeD, with the northern etid particularly noted for it 3 -Jerseys, being the breeding ground- for most of the dairy stock of the island. As he travelled north, Mount Egmont reared its majestic, snow covered mass out of the plains, dominating the landscape for 40 miles. During the spring the grass was very short and there was little meadow hay ; but the farmers were not unduly worried, as he learnt that they could as good crops in the autumn. Along the road Mr Doake passed a great number of Aberdeen /Angus cattle on their way to freezing works at Wanganui and ffawera, where the owners were ,y>aid on the dead, weight of beasts.

At New Plymouth—the northern most end of- Taranaki, were three overseas loading meat for Europe./

Tnramg a little to the recreative side,of things, the traveller thought he .would spend a short while climb-

Mrj'g Mt. Egmont ; but after the t" ertion of covering a third of its ight, almost to the snow line, he : returned and took the train to Wellington, on a line much narrower than ours, which crossed frighteningly curving high bridges or viaducts. This' train—an express—took hours to cover the 150 miles to Wellington. To be continued