TESTING OF SOILS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 265, 8 November 1937, Page 8

TESTING OF SOILS

PROGRESS IN THE NORTH MINISTERIAL APPRECIATION. [ Per Press Association. ] AUCKLAND, Nov. 7. The importance of soil testing was emphasised by the Minister of Internal Affairs, the Hon. W. Parry, on Saturday, after he had arrived in Auckland from a short visit to. the north. He said that the soil testing of in North Auckland was just as important to farmers as attempts to persuade more men to go on io the land and he praised the investigations being made by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research in conjunction with the Department of Agriculture and the Cawthron Institute, Nelson. “A man putting his faith in the advantages and adequacy of soil tests before working the land he is placed on,” said Mr. Parry, “is surely stepping off in the right way. A visit to the Cawthron Institute in Nelson made plain to me how great in importance soil testing is. There they showed me blocks of land whose soils were so well analysed that a man could quickly see what he could grow satisfactorily on any one of the sections. That is fine work and is what we want in New Zealand.”

During his visit to Whangarei, said Mr. Parry, he had met one of the officers who had been investigating soils in the north for some time and he felt that the farmers of the districts should be very gratified with the work the officers were doing. It seemed to him that every feature of the land was being thoroughly examined and samples of the soils were taken for analytical tests to show how the land could be treated for productive utilisation. “Already we know what the north is capable of in so many ways,” he said, “but these soil tests should point to other ways for even greater development than that which has taken place in pas.” “The pasures and stock of the north are looking remarkably fine,” said Mr. Parry. “There is a splendid growth of feed which looks to be stable and the condition of the sheep and cattle is such as to make the man on the land happy. A visitor meeting local body and business men must be impressed with their buoyancy of spirit and their activities in their enterprise. They are thinking along the right lines to bring forward their productivity, and progress and the historical events of the north in New Zealand’s centennial in 1940.”