HILL COUNTRY TRIALS TO BE CARRIED OUT IN WANGANUI AREA

Wanganui Chronicle, 28 October 1948, Page 3

HILL COUNTRY TRIALS TO BE CARRIED OUT IN WANGANUI AREA

That more time was to be devoted now by field officers of the Department of Agriculture to the problems facing the hill country farmer was stated by Mr. A. R. Dingwall, of the Department of Agriculture at Wanganui when he addressed members of the Wanganui Provincial Executive of Federated Farmers yesterday.

A letter from the DirectorGeneral of Agriculture (Mr. E. J. Fawcett) was received intimating that consideration was being given by the Department of Agriculture to the establishment of a hill country research demonstration area in the Wanganui district as suggested by the executive in a letter to the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research.

The Director-General said he would advise the executive when a decision had been reached.

“In the past most investigational and experimental work has been confined to problems and work in connection with the better class country,- ’ said Mr. Dingwall. There were many reasons for this, including the fact that the low country suited itself more to experimental work. At the last conference of agricultural instructors it was made very clear that as field officers they expected to devote more time to the problems of the hill country farmer during the present year “In my area a certain amount of work has been done but not as much as should have been carried out,’’ said Mr. Dingwall. He now hoped to be in a position to devote more time to the work and he hop’ed to be able to discuss with the hill country farmers their particular problems and any lines they could suggest for an approach to their problems. Investigational work would be carried out with hill country management. He would like to know more about the various types of grazing management that were used by farmers. Another matter was weed control and he would like to have details of the present methods in use. The experimental work would be carried out in top-dressing, oversowing, surface sowing, weed control and casting worms. The plots would be small and would not interfere in any way with normal farm management. Trials would be held to show the response and methods of application of oversowing and surface sowing of various types of grasses and clover.

Top-dressing and strain trials would be carried out and would be in relation to types of soil and climatic conditions, said Mr. Dingwall. The department was fortunate now in having soil type maps which had been made after thorough soil surveys. The areas and these trials would not be large and would be from a third of an acre to three acres, and would not interfere with normal farm management.

So far as casting worms were concerned it would be very interesting to carry out trials to ascertain the present distribution of them. It was known that they were well distributed in the hill country in some ‘areas and that in other areas there was none. There were many aspects of casting worms about which little was known; for instance, the optimum time and where to establish them, and where were the most suitable areas

Consideration would a]so have to be given to the various aspects of the biological control of weeds wfl insects and parasites. This form Oi control was often the best solution of the problem of the most troublesome weeds, such as variegated thistle, gorse, menaha, and hard fern. He would be pleased to see Federated Farmers set up a committee and he would also be pleased to wait on any branches. The chairman, Mr. H. J. Donnelly (Waimarino), and Messrs. F. K. Pearce and W. J. Tripe were appointed as a committee to co-operate with Mr. Dingwall.