ON THE LAND

New Zealand Tablet, 20 March 1919, Page 37

ON THE LAND

Some three years ago Mr. Reed, of the Blackbridge district (Ashburton County), introduced the growing of linseed into that locality, and it has proved a great success. This season there are hundreds of acres of it just reaching the ripening stage, and it is understood that the yield is likely to be well over the average.

LUCERNE FOR STOCK FEEDING. . According to an official report from South Africa, more fortunes have been made from the cultivation of lucerne than from any other product of South Africa, gold and diamonds excepted. It is there declared that a good crop of lucerne will produce six and a-half tons of dry fodder per acre. Two acres will maintain two cows during the summer. It is further claimed that lucerne is the largest forage crop the world has ever known. Certainly lucerne has proved its value in many other countries. In the United States its use is extending over vast areas, although the man who did more than any other to encourage its use, the late Mr. Joe Wing, grew not as a forage for stock, but to bring back to a state of fertility an abandoned farm, and this he succeeded in doing, for by means of lucerne he made an exhausted soil produce the bumper maize crop of his State. Argentine, of course, is a striking example of the possibilities of lucerne, but there the loose open soil is assuredly favorable to it. .In France lucerne covers over a million acres, and is said to be indispensable to the small cultivator.

SEED POTOTOES: METHODS OF SELECTION. In an article in the Journal of Agriculture, on the subject of seed potatoes, Mr. W. H. Taylor says: "The significance of the old saying. 'Like begets like' is doubtless appreciated by every one, yet very "few apply the principles involved to so important a crop as are potatoes. It is quite common experience for a farmer to grow an admirable crop for one or two years, and then a very meagre crop. Bad seasons or something too mysterious to be understood is usually set down as the cause. "There are doubtless a number of factors that may be at work to cause failures, and some of these may be beyond the powers of a grower 'to alter. It is well known that environment and soil have effect on tubers for seed purposes, but little or nothing is known on that phase of the question as it effects potato-growing in New Zealand. That environment does have great effect is proved by the transformation that takes place, for instance, in the well-known variety Up-to-Date. In the South Island, particularly in Otago, it exhibits its true form, a half-round with a somewhat rough skin. Sets obtained from there and planted in the North Island produce fluke-shaped tubers with a smooth skin. This alone is evidence of the need for investigation. In other ways there is no lack of information or knowledge, and many failures can be distinctly traced to bad practice. It is a general custom to select the seed tubers from the crop after it is harvested. All sizable tubers are sold ; the discards are then sorted, and those large enough are kept for seed. The sets are small; although most of them are fair seed-size, some are really too small, but would be good enough if they were of a good strain.

"Unfortunately, it is practically impossible to keep a strain strong by such methods of seed- selection.* When a crop is lifted some of the hills give nothing but small tubers, while others give a preponderance of small ones with a few large. In both instances there is evidence of deterioration or possibly disease. Hills that are good have but few small tubers. It is evident that when seed is saved in an indiscriminate manner many of the tubers will be from hills that, have shown deterioration, the proportion being dependent on the extent of such deterioration. The longer the process is carried on the weaker the strain becomes. It 'must be evident that this indiscriminate way of saving seed tubers is attended by very grave risks. Even if large or medium-sized tubers were selected in place of small ones there is an almost undiminished risk, for many of the hills give very few tubers, itself a sign of weakening in the strain. "If the strain is to be kept strong, methods other than those just outlined must be adopted. There must be special selection, and in many cases special planting of selected sets for seed production. Selection from the growing hills is recognised the world over as the best way to obtain prolific sets. When the tubers have nearly finished growing, but before the haulm begins to wither, the most promising-looking hills are lifted. Those that come up to the desired standard, both in the number of tubers and their form, are kept for planting purposes, discarding those below a certain standard. Appearances are sometimes deceitful, and promising hills are not always good. Tubers lifted in this way will, of course, be immature, but it is an accepted fact that such tubers produce heavier crops than do those that were fully matured. Where this cannot be done great improvement could be effected by instituting a process of selection while the ripened crop is being lifted, laying aside the tubers of a sufficient number of good hills. Of course, either plan involves an extra amount of labor, but this is well spent, and improvement in crops cannot be assured without it."