| STOPS "STEALING”

Waihi Daily Telegraph, Volume XXXI, Issue 8831, 9 October 1942, Page 3

| STOPS "STEALING”

SERPENTINE SUPER RELEASE OF PHOSPHATES ADDRESS BY MR C. WALKER ' '. ' The value of Serpentine rock is that it assists in preventing the “stealing” of phosphates by other elements in the soil, stated Mr C. Walker, Instructor in Agriculture, Thames, when addressing the meeting of the Northern Thames Sub-Provincial Executive of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union held in Thames on Tuesday on the subject of the value of Serpentine rock in manures.

The department had never claimed that Serpentine rock had any fertilising property at all. The department did claim that the rock would make other manures more efficient, stated Mr Walker. He explained that in the past farmers had used lime with great success so as to get the most out of manures and now it was proposed to use Serpentine which it had been proved was even better than lime.

Serpentine, he said, was not,' as many , people thought, a war discovery tout scientists had been investigating its possibilities for years. From experiments which had been conducted it had been found that Serpentine rock assisted in preventing the “stealing” of phosphates by other elements in the soil.

All soil, explained Mr Walker, contained iron and aluminium and when phosphate was applied these elements “grabbed” the phosphates and tied them up. When, however, lime was applied, these dements were “keener” on it than the phosphate and therefore “grabbed” the lime which enabled the plant life to use the phosphates.

Working on this knowledge scientists had now gone further and had found that iron and aluminium were “keener” still on an ingredient called silica. This was the reason why Serpentine Super was being used. From experiments it had already been proved that a Serpentine super mixture was as good 'and in some cases better than'straight-out super. Mr Walker stated that he had conducted trials locally and although at first he had not been very hopeful, Serpentine super was now giving better results than straight-out super or lime and super.

It had been suggested that Serpentine super was merely a “racket” to make the stocks of super go further. This was not correct, he stated. The Department of Agriculture had never attempted to deceive the farmer, added Mr Walker, quoting instances of the assistance already given such as certified seed, et«. “The department definitely considers that Serpentine super will give better results than straight-out super. It keeps better and longer and gives every satisfaction to the users,” concluded Mr Walker.

Mr E. Jamieson (Kopu) asked Mr Walker if he had seen the plot at Mr Hansen’s farm at Matatoki where Serpentine was used there was nothing to show while where super was used the grass was coming away well.

Mr Walker replied that he had seen the land in question - a'rnl in his opinion the Serpentine super plot was doing better than the other. Mr A. J. Campbell (Waihi) asked what became of the phosphate fixed in the soil.

Mr Walker explained that over countless centuries it might become available. Mr Campbell asked if there was a danger that the soil would become impoverished if the phosphate were not held to some degree by the iron and aluminium.

Mr Walker said he did not think there was much danger. The Serpentine was only tying up factors which would take the phosphates for themselves and not release them again for plant life. Mrs A. H. Blackmore (Waihi) asked if it was not a fact that Serpentine worked better in some districts than others. She said her husband had used Serpentine super for years and was very satisfied with it. Mr Walker replied that this applied to all manures and was due to the formation of the soil.

Mr Y. C. Larsen (Waihi) asked who was the owner of the deposits of Serpentine. Mr Walker said he did not know who owned the deposits. Possibly they were on Crown Land. Mr R. Tye (Kerepeehi) asked what had been the result of the experiments conducted down the Thames Coast with Serpentine super. Mr Walker said that these experiments had been the best he had conducted. The results had been very good.

Appreciation of the address given by Mr Walker was expressed, a vote of thanks being carried by acclamation.