CROPS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 175, 19 June 1940, Page 6

CROPS

WHAT ARK YOU GROWING THIS YEAR Contributed by C. 11. Taylor, L,oca Organiser, Council of Primary Pro cluction, Whakatane, "No stock farmer Avill go -wrong,' said the former British Ministe of Agriculture, Sir Reginald Dor man-Smith, "if he grows as mucl as possible of his own conccntratc< feeding" stuffs ... If Britain is t( be self-supporting in food eacl farm must become more self-sup porting in feeding stuffs for its owj livestock." With but slight chang: these remarks apply with equal sig nificance to New Zealand conditions. What does tlie New Zealand pk farmer require to bring his pigs u[ to bacon Aveight and to take thplace of skim milk in the Avinto: months? More home-grown feeding stuffs —barley, peas, maize, -artichokes, sugar beet, pumpkins, mangels. What does the daily farmer need to maintain the condition of his cows during the Avinter, to feetl productively early calving cows, and lo provide for drought periods? More home-grown feeding stuffs— mangels, swedes, soft turnips, choii moellier, carrots, pumpkins, green feed millet, maize, oats, and barley. What does the sheep farmer need to fatten his cull lambs, to improve the weight and quality of his wool, and to tide his hoggets an.d ewes over the Avi liter? More homegrown feeding stuffs —rape, ehou moellier, swedes, turnips, peas, mangels, green feed crops, lucerne. First Class Pasture Lacking. There are not many farmers in New Zealand who can say with conviction that their Avbole farm is covered with first class pasture and that it does not pay them to plough up grassland. On the dairy farms there are those night paddocks which been "pugged up" those paddocks which haA T e been cut for hay so often in succession that their SAA'ards haA r e deteriorated ,and ire unduly inferior, those paddocks ivhich were sown with inferior seed 31- too late in the season and Avhich rave run out, that small area Avhere :he pig pens have been and on .vhich the grass is so rank that stock will not touch it. On slieeo arms there are those areas Avhich ire still in inferior grasses and veeds, those areas AA'liich haA T e reverted to inferior grasses and those treas which. have been runed by frass grub. In addition to its being often advisable to plough up these areas on vhich the pastures are inferior, it nay be profitable to plough up even ir.st class pastures Avhenever a cer:al or cash crop is grown in thfc otation The best time to prepare for the 'rowing of crops for next season lepends on the nature and use of he land. Run-out grassland. Avhich vill at any rate produce little over .he Avinter, can be ploughed up now o as to lie fallow over the Avinter nonths. Further Avorking, dependng on the nature of the soil, can ie given in the spring and the ;round thoroughly prepared for the pring sowing of a crop. Whether rst ploughing is given in the early ,-inter or the early spring, ample j ime must lie alloAvcd for the thorugh preparation of a good seeded for the ensuing crop. On very ght, country such as avc lum- in arts of the Eastern Bay of Plenty is inadvisable to plough too early )r a crop owing to the great Jeadlg effect of the Avinter rains. Thus finable fresh I'oad is Avnshe:' oi'V r the upper stratum of soil be>re the crop is soAvn and this routs in a yielding crop. To sinn lip, an important pointhich is quite clear may be stated uis: the growing of suitable arablv •ops can be made to contribute lbstantially and profitably to the amotion of farm p rod tie t ion over Avide rang.> of conditions, information about just what loukl. be done under specific motions and how it shou'd be done ay be obtained from the distrie: ficer of tin Fields Devision, I). • irtment of Agriculture, Wliakv::e.