THE Director- General's PAGE

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume 63, Issue 2, 15 August 1941, Page 88

THE DirectorGeneral's PAGE

Seed Certification Services Withdrawn

A S the result of an investigation by officers of the Fields Division, , all certification services in respect of all seed handled by Messrs. Langleys, Hastings, have been withdrawn by the Department of Agriculture. Accordingly, Messrs. Langleys have been advised that no officer of the Department will be available for the supervision of the machine dressing, sealing and tagging of seed in their stores* that no application by them for field services will be accepted, and that the Department is not prepared to supply this firm with • certified Government stock seeds, or any other seed available for sale by the Department.

Proof That Wool Classing Pays

BEFORE the outbreak of war and the introduction of the ' wool appraisement scheme, or the “Commandeer” as it was more popularly known, farmers frequently argued that wool classing was not a paying proposition. In isolated instances they were right, but in general and over ; a period they were definitely wrong, for classing did payand still does. The line of argument generally adopted was . that farmer “A” who did not class got just as good a price, or a better price,

for his wool than “B,” his neighbour, with similar sheep and wool, who went to the expense of classing. There is a fallacy in the argument, but many of those who propound it either cannot or will not see it. One of the first points to be taken into account is the question of the yield of the woolthat is, the amount of clean scoured wool left after all impurities have been removed. A difference of 5 per cent, or 6 per cent, in yield would be quite imperceptible to

the average farmer, yet it would make a difference of nearly 2d per lb. to the price he received for it. Apart from yield, there are many other points which would affect the value of the two clips which might easily be overloked by the layman, for example, differences in length, count, soundness, colour, and handle. Moreover, in prewar times direct comparisons were valid only when the two clips were sold at the same salepreferably about the same time—because of the notorious fluctuations of the market. Today all these' conditions, except the last, still hold good, and another, the most convincing argument of all in favour of classing, has always been valid—today more so than ever. It is a fact that wool dealers can make a living by buying poorly-classed or unclassed clips, and after carefully reclassing them on their own premises, they are able to dispose of them at a profit. ■ - Before the war, dealers operated both at the auction sales and in ■ the country, buying direct from the farmer. Today, there are no longer

wool auction sales, as all the wool is bought on behalf of the British Government on a fixed scale of values, but licensed wool dealers still can, and do, buy direct from the farmer. It is stated that some of them who specialise in the business are actually able to offer the farmer a better price than he would receive by offering his wool for appraisal in the ordinary way. This seeming anomaly is explained by the old argument that CLASSING PAYS. Many farmers are still content to send in their clips for sale without adequate preparation—without even attempting to remove bellies and skirtings. A clip of this sort meets its just deserts, and is penalised by the appraisers when it is valued. On the other hand,, the wool dealer, operating in a given district and fully familiar with local conditions and types of wool, can afford to offer the farmer a little more than ruling commandeer prices. He can do this because on proper classing the particular clip in question will yield several distinct lines of wool, and when these in their properly-prepared state are offered for sale they will fetch enough to pay all expenses and also yield a profit. The buyer’s profit is the farmer’s loss. ‘ The moral from the farmer’s point of view is to give more time . and attention to preparing his clip for market. With a medium-sized clip, or bigger, he can do it himself, or employ a classer, or get his broker to do it. The small clip, however, is usually the one most affected by these'conditions, and does not generally allow of much classing. However, the least the farmer can do is remove the bellies, and preferably, skirt as well. He will usually be able to make one or two main lines of wool, but all small quantities of- oddments should be sent in to a broker (preferably one who specialises in binning) for handling. These firms have adequate facilities for the proper'handling of any line of wool, and, no matter how small the quantity, it will be grouped with fleeces of the same type until a large even line is assembled, which will thus fetch the farmer the full market value of his wool, less the small charge for binning.

Fertiliser Rationing

TjTNDER the fertiliser rationing UNDER the fertiliser rationing scheme, farmers will be able to receive 40 per cent, of the average annual amount of phosphate which they have used during the past two

seasons. This percentage has been fixed after an examination of approximately 70,000 returns which were recently made by farmers through their merchants. > However, the attention of farmers is drawn' to the fact that arrangements have been made which will enable them to obtain other types of phosphate for topdressing, or cropping, in place of superphosphates if they so desire. All farmers’ rations are expressed in terms of superphosphate, but this can be replaced by other types of phosphate in conformity with the following table:

To clarify the above the following example may be taken: (1) Farmer A’s ration is 10 tons of phosphatic fertiliser. He orders superphosphate. He will get 10 tons of superphosphate. (2) Farmer B’s ration is 10 tons of phosphatic i fertiliser. He , orders . reverted superphosphate. He will get 12 tons of reverted superphosphate as his ration. ‘ t , / . - In the event of farmers ordering mixtures for. topdressing or cropping,

the farmer’s merchant must compute the amount of phosphate in the mixture, and the farmer will not be entitled to receive more phosphate than his ration entitles him to. . ■

Britain Needs Cheese

r T~ , HE vital importance of the drive THE vital importance of greatest for the production of greatest possible quantity of cheese is strikingly indicated by an extract from a letter received this month from Mr. G. V. Were, a dairy instructor and grader,' of the Dairy Division, who is at present on loan to the High Commissioner’s Office, London. Mr. Were, who has acted as dairy grader and instructor in , the Wairarapa, Waikato, and North Auckland districts, has been in the thick of a number of severe air raids. He writes as follows: “Food is one of our major problems of the 'moment. Our week’s ration of meat by careful cutting lasts two meals and the bacon ration one. Substitutes for meat have to be found for four days weekly, and that is not easy. If only we could obtain more cheese we could get along nicely. Cheese at present is a far more . important item of diet than butter.. We have to spread butter so thinly that we may as well use margarine for all, the flavour we get,from it, unless it is bad. “If our dairymen in New Zealand could fully appreciate the need for more cheese in this country I feel sure that they would gladly make what comparatively small sacrifice this involves by having their milk converted into cheese instead of butter.”

1 Name of Manure. Weight which may be delivered in place of 1 ton , of Super. Tons cwt. 1. Superphosphate Tons* cwt. Superphosphate 1 1 0 0 2. Basic Super Basic Super 1 1 4 4 3. Reverted Super Reverted Super 1 1 ’4 4 4. Serpentine Super Serpentine Super 1 1 7 7 5. Heskett Slag . . Heskett Slag . . 2 2 8 8 Super and Lime (1:1) 2 0 (2:1) 1 10 * • A • • * ■ (1:2) 3 0 Basic Slag 1 0 Ammoniated Super (2S 1A) 1 10 Potassic Basic Super . 1 5 Potassic Super (5% potash) 1 1