On the Land

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 643, 20 April 1929, Page 29

On the Land

Auckland’s Progress

MOVE TOWARD GREATER PRODUCTION

Need of Greater Cultivation

FIGURES already to hand for the 1928-29 dairying season shotv that the production of dairy produce throughout constitutes a record. The figures are, in fact, a striking testimony to the advance of modern dairying methods.

■pvESPITE talk to the contrary, methods of farming throughout the province over the past decade have shown a decided improvement, and production per acre on the great majority of individual farms has been moving gradually upward. To a great extent, from the farmers’ point of view, it has been a fight between rising costs of farming and increasing production. The past season has seen a satisfactory balance in favour of the farmer. Auckland dairymen have relied mostly on two factors in their endeavours to increase production—topdressing and herd improvement. During the past decade there has been an almost phenomenal increase in the amount of top-dressing manures sent out into the country. The results have shown in the vastly improved appearance of many of the farms on which it is satisfactorily used. To-day the farmer is coming to recognise more and more that, if he cannot afford to top-dress, it is very little use attempting to carry on. Astounding results have been achieved on what was previously thought to be useless land. Although the rate of progress has been checked slightly over the past

season or so, there is no doubt that the average standard of Auckland dairy herds has improved considerably over the past decade, and that this improvement has been largely due to systematic testing, followed up by culling and proper breeding. That the standard of the stock in the province is improving is shown by the better type of dairy animal coming forward to the A. and P. shows held during the summer months. The exhibition of dairy cattle at Hamilton last November was equal to anything seen in the Dominion, while that at the Pukekohe fixture was equally as good. Auckland, also, drew a tine display of dairy types. This progress over the past ten years helps to show what can be done, and provides convincing testimony to the fact that the Auckland Province is only in its infancy as far as production is concerned. Much has been achieved by the application of manures, and a more or less haphazard system of herd-improvement. How much more could be achieved if greater attention were paid to these factors, and, in addition, intensive farming methods were practised with assiduity To-day, many farmers rely almost solely on top-dressing to pro-

tury and dozens of new ones are coming to light almost every day. Man has inhabited the earth for 23,000 years or so; the “bug” has been on it for at least 5,000,000. Will he be here when man has gone? Wholesale Destruction Last year the Prime Minister of Great Britain startled many people by stating that of all the crops produced in the world the previous year onetenth was destroyed by insects. Really the only startling thing in the statement was its conservatism; had he said one-seventh he would have been much nearer the mark. The insect annually eats or destroys the labour of . over 70,000,000 men and the rate of de- , struction is increasing. The mosquito is, perhaps, the most l destructive of the pests; last year it . was estimated to have killed nearly : four millions of the world’s workers ! and to have retarded production to the ! extent of almost £100,000,000. The blow-fly, usually ignored as be- ; in of little account, has, in one year, ; in Australia, been responsible for the loss of well over a million sheep; this | loss is easily translated into terms of pounds sterling. The ordinary housefly kills a very large number of people, principally children, each year. The locust costs the world a cool five millions or so on an average annually. The tsetse fly means a loss of millions to us every year; shall we say between forty and fifty millions? If we do we shall be in fairly close agreement with our statistical entomologists. The Potato Beetle The beetle family is almost as des structive; the Colorado potato beetle l cost the U.S.A. some £14,000,000 in i 1925 in preventive measures alone, i The black snout in wheat has cost the - world almost as much as this in a l single season. It is hard to estimate the damage due to timber pests; one i “bug” alone, the “Platypus Copulata,” > is known to have destroyed furniture ) woods to the value of millions in a fc year, and there are some 1880 catai logued timber-pests. i Pour years ago, for the first time a bug, the “Platinaria Capstickus,” was l found in the teak-forests of Siam. Prompt measures enabled, it is bet lieved, this pest to be exterminated - at a trifling cost of only a few thoui sand pounds. Three Governments opl erated conjointly in this laudable * effort, with the result that, to-day, half

vide their fodder requirements. It seems that much more could be done toward growing supplementary fodder, and generally making use of the farm to greater advantage, much on the same lines as in Western Europe, where every foot of soil is valuable. Auckland farmers have done well in the past. Indications are, however, that they will do even better ki the future. If all the waste land in the North, and the vast areas of ■ pumice country in the south, is to be brought into a state of profitable production, greater attention will require to be paid to the plough and the value of cultivation, as factors which go side by side with intensive and profitable farming. A NEVER-ENDING WAR FARMERS AND PESTS SOME INTERESTING FIGURES By “CAPPY RICKS,” in the “Cape Times.” “Senors, in a thousand years’ time the ‘bug’ will have killed the man. A fortnight ago your precious Chef da Agriculture assured me that you hadn’t a pest in your cork-woods; today I* found 10; to-morrow I shall find 20 the day after 30.” Thus spake a loud-voiced American on the verandah of a Spanish hotel 36 years ago. It was the man who, two years beore, had discovered the pest now known as the boll-weevil which did £70,000,000 worth of destruction a decade ago to the cotton crops. Was he right or was he wrong in his prohpecy? The unpleasant fact exists that there are classified and catalogued today two thousand and three hundred times as many pests as were known to exist at the beginning of last cen-

the timber-world does not believe any j such pest ever manifested itself, “no bug could ever feed on oily teak,” they say, virtue, once again is its only reward. “Mahogany, of course, will always be free of pests,” said the tim-ber-world until two years ago, when the Belize (Honduras) Trading Co. went insolvent through losing £170,000 by the depredations of the first “bug” to mainfest itself in this beautiful and particularly valuable timber. In the pests we may include the rat; what does he cost the world per annum? It would be hard to assess the damage wrought by this rodent’s sharp, white, needle teeth to foodstuffs and buildings. Some assessors place the figure in hundreds of millions, without going into any question of bubonic plague and other diseases propagated by this enemy of mankind. The squirrel, or squirrel-rat, it is estimated. cost the world of copra some £12,000,000 in 1926. The white-ant is a world-wide scourge, even the arctic regions are not immune to its ravages, with which we are all familiar. It extends its depredations annually without any serious attempt being made to exterminate it. Why? THINNING APPLES CANADIAN TESTS As a result of some tests which were carried on by the Missouri Experiment Station with a view to finding out the value of thinning apples, it was found that on thinned trees 19 bushels of fruit, valued at 31.75 dollars were produced, while similar unthinned trees averaged only 23.07 dollars. The average for five thinned trees, less 2.25 dollars for thinning, was 24.91 dollars, or 1.84 dollars more per tree. On an acre basis, the difference in favour of thinning would vary from 82 dollars to 92 dollars to the acre, depending on the plantings. Colour was best on the fruit from thinned trees and the apples were larger, averaging 148 to the bushel rather than 160. Thinned trees produced 85 per cent, number one apples, compared with 81 per cent, for the unthinned lot. In' the tests, ten acres were chosen as equal in most respects, last June, by three orchard experts. Five were thinned and produced 77.5 bushels of fruit, six more than the 71.5 bushels on the trees from which no fruit had been removed. It was stated that probably the 19bushel tree had a heavier crop at the start, but the judges could see no difference last June. In any case, the other four thinned trees averaged better than the five unthinned ones. The evidence shows that a very heavy setting of apples is not necessary for a profitable yield.—Canadian “Horticulturist.”