AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2892, 11 August 1909, Page 6

AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL NEWS.

A Press Association telegram from Christchurch states that the Agricultural Department has secured 10 Holstein heifere and cows from Mr J. C. N. Grigg's farm at Long'bsaoh. It is intended to establish a. milking- strain of that breed at Wereroa State Farm. That violl-sjrown and nrime lamb is on yalo in the butcher's shops at Masterton is striking evidence of the mildness of the season. Lambs on the market in the month of July is certainly a new experience so far a« th« W-urarapa is concerned. Reports from most of the big stations about Wairarapa. are to the effect that sh^ep are in the very best of condition, and that the wool crop will be phenomenally heavy this year. There has been a fairly h"avy mortality amongst hogeets. The platform adopted by the Farmers and Settlers' Conference in Sydney sets forth: — (1) Land to be paramount over reveniMJ; (a) resumption of improvement loases," sub-leases, and eighteenth section leases, suitable for residential settlement: (b) resumption of large estates for purposes of closer settlement. (2) Freehold tenure, as opposed to nationalisation of land. (3) Choice of tenure to applicants under Crown land acts. (4) Permanent right of reanpraiiement on application of all lend held under residential settlement conditions. (5) Railway extension and increased transit facilities. (6)

Water conservation and irrigation. (7) Administration of the Department of Landis by commissioners. (8) Encouragement of desirable immigration. (9} Lay members of local land boards to be elected. (10^ Bulk handling of grain. (11) Extension of practical and experimental education under the auspices of the State. (12) Consolidation, and simplification of land acts. The question of weeds on the fallow is of the utmost importance in connection with the conservation of soil moisture. The amount of moisture removed from the soil by plants is something enormous. In fairly humid districts over 350 tons of water is taken up by a cereal crop in producing one ton of dry matter In dry areas, where evaporation is more rapid, it is estimated that nearly 500 tons of water are represented in every ton of dry matter. With grain it is estimated from careful experiments carried out at the Illinois Experiment Station that a 40-bushel wheat crop required the water represented by 12in of rain; while in Utah, which has a much drier climate, the same crop would require 18in to 20in of rain. With such figures ia mind, the necessity for conserving as muoh as possible of the winter's rain for next season's crop cannot be too strongly emphasised. The first step, of course, is to get the rain into the soil, and this " is best achieved by opening the soil early to catch all the rain possible The loss of moisture by allowing weeds to grow on the fallow oan be realised wSan we know that the average weed requires more water than wheat to make a ton of dry matter — it is estimated at between 400 and 600 tons. It is true that there is with most weeds less dry weight produced per aore; but, at the same time, the drain on the soil moisture is very great. At the Illinois Experiment Station tests were made a, few years ago to determine more definitely what this loss was. Two plots of ground side by side were used for the experiment. On one the weeds were allowed to grow un--checked, while on the other the ground was scraped frequently to destroy any weeds, without, however, making a soil mulch, which would have checked evaporation. In the summer a number of tests we^e made to determine the moisture of • the soil in each plot. To a depth of Ivat the weed plot averaged 15.1 per cent, of moisture, and the clean plot 18.6 per cent. ; from 7in to 19in in depth the weed plot averaged 16.7 per cent, and the clean plot 19.6 per cent, of .moisture. These figures show that the weeds in a climate which is fairly humid had lessened the moisture in the soil by 3 per cent, in the total depth of Win.