AGRICULTURAL ADVANCE

Shannon News, 18 December 1928, Page 4

AGRICULTURAL ADVANCE

Fanners Accepting Lead f A marked feature of the. recent progress of the Department of Agriculture is tlie extension of instructional and scientific services, states tke latest departmental report. These Services arc resulting in a gradual lessoning of tke volume of work necessary for carrying out restrictive measures, since farmers themselves are adopting 1 and carrying out methods of combating: 'animal and plant diseases and insect pests. , The report states that some credit may be taken by the department for helping by instruction and advice, toward the gradual increase in the output of primary products in late years.; enumerating some of the more important activities of the department, the : report mentions that a farm economics section of the Department of Agriculture \ has recently been inaugurated.' The securing of data and its manipulation to enable deductions to be made, is a lengthy business, but already the ; results of several dairying investigations have been published, and much other material is well in hand, iucluding that relative to other branches of New Zealand agriculture. All: data 1 supplied by farmers is treated as confidential. Agricultural instruction has been strengthened by the appointment of additional officers. Certification of Crops. Reference is made to tie establishment of the plant research station at Palmerston North, and the system of crop certification, the object of which is to render available to merchants and growers lines of seed reasonably free from disease. So far certification has been confined to wheat and potatoes, but extension of the work to include other crops, such as certain clover and grass seeds is contemplated. By certification it is hoped to stimulate the production of such seed, and to establish the fact that its, use will render yields more' stable and the produce more readily saleable, and will bring about a marked improvement in the general standard of New Zealand grown seed. , Statistical examination of the results of field crop experiments has been added to demonstration and observation work. Work on the selection pf better strains of maize, the elimination of “disease in barley, and of dry rot in swedes, has made material progress, and is being continued. Under the .heading of regrassing of deteriorated lauds it is stated officers of the department have conducted comprehensive experiments consisting in the main of top-dressing the existing grassland, sowing various grasses and - seed mixtores, top-dressing new sowings, and experimenting in the eradicatidn of the very- troublesome “hard” fern.

Concerning dairy industry systemisation and betterment, the report mentions the regulations providing for the use of a national brand, additional grading of dairy produce, regulations governing conditions.. of manufacture, subsidies to herd-testing associations and the official herd-testing of purebred cows.

The record achievement’ goes oil to deal with the measures taken for the control of animal disease, the development of animal husbandry, the encouragement of the pork and poultry indue tries, the provision of fertilisers from Naru and Ocean Islands, the control of the rabbit pest, and work done in the interests of the fruit-growing and horticultural industries.