LEAN DAYS AT MOUMAHAKI.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 794, 18 April 1910, Page 10

LEAN DAYS AT MOUMAHAKI.

"SLOWLY CEASING TO EXIST." ; (By Teleerarh.—Sriec}al,-Cerre6Dondcnt.) Wanganui, April 17. The Government's policy of so-called .economy at the Moumahaki Experiment Farm''does"not appear to have' been followed by beneficial results, judging by tho. statements, made by a correspondent. -tonthe (/"Wanganui Herald," who' 'says' that 'iiftbr & "recent' visit Jio has come to the conclusion that Moumahaki, ■-> viewed as'-real experiment farm, was slowly Irat surely ceasing to bxist. Some experiments-were still going on, but.all the most extensive and .important ones had been abandoned. Tho experimental crop sown for the purpose of finding the best mixture for ensilage- was" Deingr fed to, cattle,while in tho pasture top-dressing experiments tho gates between the plots were left open, and the whole was being grazed by the i farm's dairy herd. The nursery, garden, and orchard are a complete; eyeSore; the'.usually fine educative garden 'is mass of weeds, and many of the fruit trees are simply covered with woolly aphis blight, while the large was almost impassable :by reason of a strong undergrowth of -thistle and' other weeds. The only bright patch on ail otherwise dreary waste is tho poultry sectioiij which is highly spoken of. • i Concluding, the correspondent., remarks: ,"To: sum npj l ani certain that as a whole the Moumahaki Experiment Station has vastly deteriorated during the past six months, although I. must S*y that the present manager appears to. be doing .his best ..with tho labour and money et his disposal. To myself aild others who have visited the f*rm lately it is quit# plain that tho Government does not want Moumahaki to show to advantage, and would be only too pleased to see it die a natural death, despite all the up-to-date improvements, and intelligent, systematic work put into it." ',

Mr. John Mcflall, Agent-General for Tasmania,'in'a'recent' address to the colonial section of the Royal Society of Arts on the "Fruit Production of the British Empire," said that in Tasmania a profit of about .£'lo an acre was mado from apple-growing, so that with an orchard' of 25 acres a careful cultivator would make au.-income of .£IOOO a year. ■He. advocated the keeping of bees in connection with orcharding.'