HELPING THE FARMER.

Waipa Post, Volume II, Issue 55, 24 October 1911, Page 4

HELPING THE FARMER.

AN AGRICULTURAL LABORATORY. , Referring to, the Auckland Farmers' jUnion scheme for the establishment of a laboratory to have soils, manures, etc., analysed at a nominal cost, which scheme was outlined in this column a short time ago, the " Star" says a suitable building at Ellerslie has been rented and an up-to-date plant is to be secured, so that it will be possible to start work in three weeks or a month. An important part of the scheme is the giving of demonstrations on Saturday afternoons to farmers and the issuing of leaflets on agricultural matters from time to time. It is felt that the analysing of soils will be the principal work of the laboratory, and the advanage of such analysis to the farmer has been generally acknowledged. Hitherto many farmers have sent samples of soils to the Agricultural Department, but generally the analyses returned have been either ambiguous or too technical to be readily understood. The aim of the new laboratory is to supply analyses of practical use to the farmer, indicating in plain language the composition of the soil and the nature and quantity of the manure required for the different varieties of crops. Seeds can also be tested, and estimates of the food value of roots and grain furnished.

Mr Lynch, who was for four years at the Dominion Laboratory, Wellington, and who has offered his services free of charge for twelve riionths, remarked to a reporter that really scientific agriculture was quite in its infancy in New Zealand, but there was evidence that the farmers were waking up to the possibilities of the systematic use of fertilisers. The latter were too often applied haphazard, and often with indifferent results. With proper data to work upon, the farmer would be saved from using too much manure, and in many cases from applying the wrong variety. The cost of analyses would be trifling to start with, as nothing would be charged for but the chemicals employed. Another branch of the work would be the analyses of any mineral specimens that union members might care to forward.