NEW ZEALANDER’S WORK

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26618, 14 November 1947, Page 4

NEW ZEALANDER’S WORK

SOIL CONSERVATION ACTIVITIES IN CANADA p A WELLINGTON, Nov. 13. When the top soil of Alberta and Saskatchewan, which produce more wheat than the other Canadian provinces combined, was in danger or being blown away in the drought Oa. 1935-36, the Government looked to a New Zealander, Mr L. B. Thomson, 0.8. E., B.Sc., to rescue these rich territories from becoming a permanent “dust bowl." With Mr Thomson as chairman of the Water Conservation Plan and all activities on soil erosion by wind, the apparently hopeless task was accomplished. To-day, Alberta and Saskatchewan are in better production than ever. Mr Thomson is back in New Zealand for the first time in 27 years, representing the Canadian Department of Agriculture and renewing old personal ** Asked how the miracle of saving the agricultural productivity of the two provinces had been effected, Mi Thomson said it was done by a sound policy of land use. Farmers and research workers developed better tillin o practice and agriculture had been made to fit the climate We found that we were over-ploughing and harrowing our land—tearing it all up, he said “We were running too fast with our tractors, throwing the soil instead of turning. Now we are making machinery to meet the conditions. We have implements which maintain .stubble which is an anchor in the soil and called “ trash ” cover. “ Instead of planting a large field of sav. 1000 acres in wheat, Mr Thomson said “we cultivate it in strips, having only one crop in two years. The remaining stubble alone reduces wind velocity by three miles an hour. Every effort is made to hold all possible moisture in the soil as one inch of rain represents two bushels oi wheat an acre. By the present methods, up to 40 per cent, of the nrevious season's rain is retained in th JVIr Thomson is also chairman of the Canadian organisation which has shipped to Europe in the past two years 2000 live breeding mares and 100,000 horses preserved in tins. Direction of the horse-processing proiect is a secondary activity of Mr Thomson, who is superintendent of the Canadian Department of Agriculture» experimental stations in Saskatchewai . Mr Thomson was born in Biennelm and educated at, Marlborough College He left New Zealand at the age of 20. _