BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXX, Issue 54, 30 October 1914, Page 8

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

JPhb Pbebi Amooiation.] Wellington, October 29. The Board of Agriculture held a lengthy meeting in Wellington yesterday, when a number of questions that had been referred to it by the Minister of Agriculture and by various public bodies were discussed and recommendations made. Lengthy reports submitted by the chairman regarding rural education and the proposal to offer scholarships to enable New Zealand lads to attend the Melbourne Veterinary School, *ath a view to their being trained for the public service were discussed. The Chairman also detailed the steps that had been taken to give effect to j the recommendations of the Board in regard to the encouragement of the breeding of horses for military purposes some of which recommendations had been embodied in the Eemounts Bill recently passed by the House. It was further decided to urge agricultural and pastoral societies to offer more inducements to encourage the breeding of artillery horses.

After a full discussion of the knotty problem of noxious weeds, it was decided, before taking any further step in the matter, to circularise county councils, agricultural and pastoral associations, and branches of the Farmers' Union stating that the Board is enquiring into the question ; that the tendency of evidence so far before the Board was that in some districts it would be impossible to enforce the Act without causing settlors great expense, and probably not effecting the object ; that at the same time there is a large area of New Zealand in which settlers desire that the Act .should be more stringently enforced ; and asking these various bodies for their opinions regarding the classifying of districts and whether the Act should be enforced in any parts of their districts, or whether it should be left in abeyance. In the afternoon the Board had a lengthy conference with Mr B. C. Aston, F.1.C.F.C.5., who had just returned from Europe and America, and who gave the Board some valuable information about the supply of phosphatic and other manures. The committee appointed to deal with the control of ticks and lice in i sheep submitted a number of recommendations that were adopted by the Board, and which will be forwarded to the Department. Letters were also received and dealt with from the Under-Secretary of Lands regarding limestone deposits in Manawatu Gorge, where a section i suitable for lime-burning purposes had been laid off, the reservation of the* Tauhara bush under the Scenery Preservation Board and Crown Lands, and the State plantations in the neighborhoor of Taupo and Rotorua. A sub-committee was appointed to report upon afforestation. Replies were received from the shipping companies regarding the export [of fruit, and steps were taken calculated to minimise the damage of fruit and cases during shipping operations. It was also decided to make further inquiries regarding the South American market for apples. Two sittings were held to discuss the best course to adopt with regard to the export of wool to foreign countries during the present war, and at the close the result of the Board's deliberations on this question was submitted to the Prime Minister. Arrangements were made to visit the experimental farms at an early date. ■ ,