HORTICULTURAL EXPERT’S VISIT.

Levin Daily Chronicle, 27 February 1928, Page 8

HORTICULTURAL EXPERT’S VISIT.

WILL PROVE OP GREAT ADVANTAGE. In Mr. Field’s opinion the visit of Dr. Hill to the flaxraills, swamps, and nurseries in the Manawatu district is likely to prove of great ultimate advantage to the hemp industry in New Zealand. He visited the, mills and nurseries of Messrs B. B. Wood and Alfred Seifert in the Makerua district, and examined them with the utmost care, displaying 1 particular interest "in the efforts displayed by the two millers mentioned in the propagation of the best varieties of flax. Not only th« millers but Dr. Cockayne and his son, Mr. R. H. Cockayne. Government biologist, did their utmost to supply our distinguished visitor with all the information necessary to enable him to acquire a complete knowledge of the Phormium tenax plant itself, and the methods of manufacture. He was particularly interested in young plants being raised at Mr. Wood’s nursery of a valuable variety, specially prized by the Maoris, grown by the late Mr. John A. Field, of Paraparaumu, and obtained by the latter from Waitotara many years ago. Mr. Seifert too exhibited ■with pride plants grown from seed, selected by Mr. G. W. Smerle, a wellknown. flax expert, collected in Mr. W. H. Field’s swamps at Waikanae. Both the above varieties were of very_ high fibre content. Dr. Hill was loud in his praise of the excellent selection work which was being done by Messrs Wood and Seifert, and strongly advised them to continue same. He expressed the opinion, as did Mr. Cockayne, that the most dangerous competitor they had to combat in the world’s market was sisal. He had seen enough, he said, to satisfy him that the N.Z. hemp industry presented many sided problems. The menace of the Yellow Leaf disease was mentioned, and plants affected by it examined, and Mr, Field pointed out swamps at Waikanae which were suffering severely from this disease, the nature and cause of which was still perplexing our scientists and millers. Many millers hold the opinion that it is an evil which will come and go and that by careful selection plants can bo grown which will bo immune from this pest. Dr. Hill spent so much time investigating‘flax activities that he had to cut short his visit to Waikanae, and had to abandon his intended visit to Mr, Simeox’s interesting collection of native plants at Otaki. He however saw something of the coastal forest, and swamp and sand dune vegetation. He was particuarly interested in a very beautiful little swamp plant, Abundant at Waikanae, the Gunnera arenaria, the spikes of orange red drupes of which are a striking sight just how, and he collected a quantity of the fruit in order to established it at Kew Gardens.