AGRICULTURE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIII, 2 August 1929, Page 6

AGRICULTURE

ASSISTANCE FOR FARMERS The of the Department of Agriculture will be used to assist the men on the land, and particularly the new settlers. To this endj, the instructional activities of the Department are being :staadily"'f extended by means of personalVcdntact with farmers; local field experiments, lectures, and publicity matter. Research activities are being given special attention, particularly as regards various diseases of dairy cows, certain sheep troubles, and the mineral content of pastures in relation to animal nutrition and deficiency diseases. A plant research-station 1 has been established at Palmerston North in co-operation with the Research Department, with a field area o'ii'part of the iMassey Agricultural College farm, and valuable research is being carried out there into plant-dis-eases, ;; insect pests, and other matters of vital interest to the farming community.:*; The Department of Scientific and Industrial". Kesearch, in addition to its other activities for the benefit of our secondary industries, is, in collaboration with the Agriculture Department, investigating problems of wool research, losses due to temporary sterility of cows, and cold-storage problems connected with all perishable exports. Arrangements I have also been made for the determination of the amounts of the various vitamins present in New Zealand butter, and for investigation of methods whereby the high vitamin content of butterfat from New Zealand cows may be preserved in the manufacture of butter and cheese. It is satisfactory to note that the production of these commodities shows satisfactory increases, which demonstrate that the increasing us e of fertilisers for top-dressing and other farming c/peratioms is profitable

to the farmer and the Dominion generally. To the improved carryingcapacity of top-dressed grasslands may also be partly traced the remarkable increase of 1,670,000 in the number of sheep, which was disclosed by the. interim returns as at the 30th April, 1929.