FIELD EXPERIMENTS.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1971, 30 January 1914, Page 10

FIELD EXPERIMENTS.

JVHAT IS BEING DONE IN THE SOUTH ISLAND. The work of the Fields Division of the .Department of Agriculture in tho South island was interestingly revieweda few days ago by Mr. A. Macpherson, Fields Instructor, in a conversation, with a r"Prcss" reporter.' Mr. Macpherson. ex- : plained that formerly it was the practice of the Division to agree to experiments which any farmor offered to. make, but last year a different system was adopted. Beforo agreeing'to such experiments, an officer of the Division . reported on the suitability of the farmer who offered to conduct tho experiments, also as to the suitability of his land lor the purpose, and if the report was favourable, tho experiments wero authorised, tho Division and the farmer co-operating. The work has grown to such an extent, that it is beyond tho capability of one officer to supervise , all the experiments in.the South Island, and there are jiow associated with Mr. [ Macpherson in tho work lio fewer than • 32 inspectors of noxious weeds and rab- _ bits, who '...uporvi.se the experiments in 'their respective districts, carrying out 'Mr; Macpherson's instructions' and reporting to him.

On 232 farms, extending from Nelson • in the north to tho Bluff in the south, these eo-operativo experiments are being conducted. On these farms 3860 , plots havo been sown with wheat, oats, barley, grasses, clovers, lucerne, mangels, turnips, carrots, khol ' rabi parsnips, potatoes (maniirial and spraying tests), silver beet, rape, Cho'u Mollier, Biula kale, Jcrsoy kale, thousandJieaded kale, Russian kale, maize, and other crops. The , object sought to be attained by these experiments is the thorough investigation .of tho productivity of tho various soils in each district, and in selecting tho areas' on which the experiments are carried out attention is [mid to their accessibility to tho farmers of the district. The knowledgo gained is available to all farmers in tho district, and much valuable information is, consequently, being placed at tlieir disposal. In addition to testing" different varieties,,-tho Fields Division also conducts maniirial tests for the information of farmers. Half-a-<lozcn fertilisers used in different proportions are employed in each district to determine the nature and quantity of enrichment required by the soil. Mr. Macpherson _ does not encourage tho tiso of artificial as ho is convinced that poor land is nioro effectively improved by the addition. of organic maijteir, effected by ploughing in suitable "vegetation; and this method i 3 largely 'employed in tho co-operative experiments. This year, fourteen new varieties of oats, nino of wheat, and tw.elvo of barley aro being experimented with.

The "Express" reports that hares pre becoming very numerous iit the Eketahuna district, and that in instances th'oy are dobig considerable damage to gardensjand young .crops*