KING COUNTRY FARMING

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 188, 29 October 1927, Page 25 (Supplement)

KING COUNTRY FARMING

FERTILISER TESTS DETERIORATION CHECKED (From Our Own Correspondent) TAUMARUN UI, Thursday. With the object of assisting farmers in the King Country to obtain the best possible information regarding the treatment of their lands, the Fields Division of the Department of Agriculture lias established experimental plots at convenient points, and the data gathered by the department’s officers is invaluable to those most directly interested.

On the property of C. M. Wright, midway between Manunui and the Taunjarunni power station, there is a series of plots, indicating the use of unmanured land, and that on which basic slag, super and basic super is used. The formation being clay, the results appeal* to point to the slag being the most effective fertiliser. A second series of plots has been sown on Mrs. Olsen’s property at Piriaka. The manures used in sequence as the plots lie in order are blood and bone, super and Nauru rock phosphate, Ephos, basic slag, super and carbonate of lime, basic super and an unmanured plot. Up to the present the plots dressed with super appear to be the most advanced.

A third series has been laid out on C. Osborne’s farm at Makomiko, the soil being light pumice. The manures used are the same as at Piriaka, though in different strengths, with the addition of fish fertiliser. The portions dressed with super and lime and basic super appear to be deriving the greatest benefit.

A splendid set of plots on the farm of Mr. Hammond, at Owhango, is worth a visit. They were put down in 1926, and dressed again last May. Observations of these, and also the results of hill country top-dressing trials, will shortly appear in the Journal of Agriculture,

The lambing season has been an exceptionally good one throughout the King Country. A few reports to hand are as follows:—At Tapuwahine, J. Caird secured 100 per cent, of lambs, and E. Coogan 119 per cent. At OngaI’ue C. B. Fullerton-Smith tallied 118 per cent., and Mr. Gardiner, of Kaitleke, ran out at 105 per cent. Reports generally are equally good and the abundance of good feed this year is having a marked effect on the condition of the sheep. The winter and early spring being very mild, mortality among the lambs was kept at a low level. A great deal of land which lias been under turnips is now being worked up, and put down in pastures, and it is expected that with the greater knowledge in the use of fertilisers, and the experience gained with local soil conditions, much of this pasture will be of a permanent nature. It may not be safe to say that deterioration has been overcome, but it certainly has been arrested and will in a few years be a thing of the past. 1