SOME SOUTH AFRICAN AGRICULTURAL NOTES.

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume XXX, Issue 5, 20 May 1925, Page 337

SOME SOUTH AFRICAN AGRICULTURAL NOTES.

M. H. DIXON,

A.C.P., Technical College, Napier

TEFF-GRASS.

On a recent visit to South Africa the writer found that the Abyssinian grass named teff (Eragrostis Abyssinicus) is.steadily gaining favour as a-secondary crop. Many farmers in the Transvaal declared that they intended it to become their main fodder in the future, finding it less wasteful than lucerne and just as well liked by their stock. . An analysis of teff recently published by the South African Department of Agriculture compared very favourably with that of lucerne. After obtaining a fine tilth, from 4 lb. to 5 lb. only of seed per. acre is sown, and, if no rain occurs in the interval between harrowing and sowing, the seed is not harrowed in. If, on the other hand, the land has had rain during this interval, the ground is reharrowed with a light harrow or similar cultivator after the seed has been sown. Growth at first is very slow, but after four weeks’ favourable weather the field begins to show green, and from this stage onwards the growth is very rapid, and the teff is usually ready to cut four months from time of germination. Given favourable weather conditions, a profitable second ■cut can be made in two months after the first one. . A good crop yields from 2 to 2| tons per acre, , and the market price of good quality teff hay runs from £4 to £4 10s. per ton.

Teff hay can be carried long distances over rough roads or paddocks without much loss, as its constituent parts are not in the least brittle. The South African farmer finds that lucerne hay,- even when in bales, loses a good deal of the leaf-growth during transit from farm to town, or from one part to another on the larger farms. .It is also found that there is a greater loss of the more nutritive parts of lucerne hay after it is distributed to the stock than is the case with teff. Teff has a great popularity for cleaning dirty lands, and I was frequently told that when allowed to germinate at the same time as prevalent weeds, such as amaranthus weed or Prince of Wales feathers), which is as troublesome in the Transvaal as in some parts of New Zealand, it invariably smothers the weeds in addition to giving a profitable yield of hay,

THE MAIZE INDUSTRY. A feeling of greater security is being given to the South African maize-growers by the erection in several towns of concrete grainelevators, which consist of a number of storage usually about twenty-four —each having a capacity of 40 tons, and half-a-dozen storage cylinders having about three times this capacity. In January of this year a conference was held at Johannesburg, attended by representatives of the South African Agricultural Union, J the South African Maize-growers’ Association, and the . Central Agricultural Cooperative Society, to consider the organization of the maize industry on co-operative lines more or less similar to those of the Alberta Wheat Producers’ Co-operative Association in Canada. AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS. The work of the South African Department of Agriculture has mainly been in the direction of combating plant and animal diseases, and in improving and promoting the increase of plant and animal products. This year, however, has seen the creation of the Division of Agricultural Economics and Markets, of which Dr. F. Geldenhuys, of Bloemfontein, has been appointed chief. The work of this division will include the investigation of all kinds of economic questions associated with farming, marketing of crops, co-operation, farm-manage-ment, &c. Such questions as farm credits, tenant systems, and the social welfare of the farming population will be investigated. ♦ ■ VETERINARY RESEARCH AND TRAINING. The numerous diseases prevalent among horses, mules, cattle, goats,, and sheep in South Africa have caused the establishment of research institutions for ' the investigation of these diseases. The largest of these was visited —Onderstepoort Biochemical Research College, near Pretoria, which has four departments, one being a university school for students who have previously spent two years in the study of English, mathematics, and general subjects at some other university college, and have transferred to Onderstepoort to specialize as veteri-

nary surgeons. The course extends over three years, and there are thirty students this year- —ten for each year's course. The other departments are respectively for original research work, the preparation, testing, and distribution of - vaccines (for which purpose many kinds of animals are kept on the place), and the administration department. The vaccines for anthrax, redwater, gall-sickness, bluetongue, and black-quarter (blackleg) were shown, also a powder which has been proved to be a very effective remedy for wire-worms in sheep. After, seeing many features of the microscopic work carried out in the different laboratories and also numbers of the animals on which new vaccines were being tested, I was not surprised when told by Dr. E. V. Cowdray, of the Rockefeller Research Institute, New York, who had been engaged in research work for six months at Onderstepoort, that he did not think there was any college, even in America, which was doing greater service for the farming community of the country. Large quantities of the vaccines and powders" are despatched every week for. distribution to farmers at very small cost, each remedy being accompanied by printed matter giving very complete instructions and advice as to treatment. MANORIAL EXPERIMENTS. A visit to the Government Experimental: Farm and School of Agriculture in the Transvaal revealed that institution to be somewhat like a combination of our Ruakura Farm of Instruction and Lincoln College. Mr. Thomas D. Hall, of the Experimental Division, showed me results of fertilizer experiments on maize, tefi, and potatoes. The general conclusions drawn from these were that, although light applications of some nitrogenous, fertilizer are occasionally beneficial in the early stages of growth, the phosphatic constituent of any mixture of fertilizers, is the only one that pays with certainty, and that in almost every experiment the application of superphosphate, 300 lb. to the acre, without any other fertilizer, had produced the best results. The success of this fertilizer. was especially noticeable in the potato crops, the size and cooking-qualities of the potatoes from the plot receiving superphosphate at the rate mentioned being the best. Moreover, the value of superphosphate was apparent on crops of maize and clovers not treated with fertilizers that year, but where other crops - on the same ground had received an application. in the preceding, season. Indeed, growth on those plots where superphosphate had been applied for the previous crop was better than on any of the others. CLOSE SETTLEMENT, ' Close settlement is being developed in the Transvaal by the sale of Government sections of from 50 to 80 acres situated along the bank of a river, each owner of a section, having grazing-rights on the “ common land,” situated adjacent to the sections at a farther distance from the stream. A visit was paid to one of these settlements near the Mooi River, and also to a similar settlement in the Pot stroom district, provided with water by means of irrigation canals leading away from the Klipdrift Dam, built by the Government at a cost of £80,000, each canal being five miles long. There are eighty families located at this particular settlement.

© [Note. —A test plot is being sown in teff-grass by Mr. Dixon at Napier this autumn, and he intends making another sowing .in the spring. Certain previous trials under New Zealand conditions have not been altogether favourable to teff for this country, and caution is suggested until further local experience is acquired. —Editor.]