Sugar-Beet Growing in H.B.

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 99, 13 May 1937, Page 7

Sugar-Beet Growing in H.B.

W.

GREENING.

■!■ i imlmmk Sir,— The recent fisit and utteranJes of Mr A. Grant, the English sugar-beet dxpert, who is engaged in testing the tfials of sugar beet in New Zealand, make very intcresting readlng. Eor the bencfit of your rcaders who may not know, I will summarise them. Mr. Grant 's tests, which are not yet completed, due to the erops not yet being ripe, are as follow — "Crops are exceflent, boet weil formed general ly and the crops heavy. The crops promiSed yieids considerably ahead of the Oid Country and in Hawke's Bay generally better than elsewhere in New zealand." Then he goes on to say that to grow this. crop fifty thouaand acres would be i'gquired, not all to be cropped simultanoously with sugar-beet, but te be used rotationaliy with other crops, sugar-beet doing better under those conditions— which ard of course ideal — these conditions and araa it appeared to him could not be i'ound in Hawke's

Bay. Mr. Grant also cOnsiders that sugarbeet culture would be better earried out in Canterbury, where arable land is extensiveiy earried on. Hawke's Bay, he says, is better in promise than elsewhere in New Zealand, 1 promised Mr. Grant some surprises and he has had them, and what is more he is going to have more. Excellent as our trials here are, the peak is not yet reached by any means, I do not think many of us rcalise What a paradise Hawke's Bay realiy te, Its suitability for growlng this crop being most prohounced, it has opened up great possibiities in other directions which will all tend to the prosperity of Hawke's Bfiy. . Now that we are proving that we can grow "tho stuff," the next step is to find the growers and the land for it— perhaps not so diffioult as people would havo us believe, not forgetting in doing this, that wherever this crop is raised it has definitely improved the standard ef agriculture. To this end 1 propose to lay a plan bufore you in the near futnre and to ask you aii to "come over and help us" and lend yohr aid to brittg abOtit this desired resuit. This indnstry is practically eertain to bo esta^lished in New Zealand having regard to the sttccess of these triais, the position at the momeut being that Hawke 's Bay has scored a brilliant try, and all that romulus is to add the

finishing kick. Kick we can and kiek w© must. Don't you all agree? The area iaid down in sugar-beet in Europe including Russia in 1936 is in tho vieinity of six mlilion acres.— Yours,

Havelock, May 18, 1937,