SOMETHING ABOUT MOMOHAKI.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 59, 1 May 1907, Page 4

SOMETHING ABOUT MOMOHAKI.

CLKANKD ON TUIKWDAY. If there was one point more than anotlu'i' lint iinpvessed itself on the farin- ■ ■': prciient, it was tlie complete orderlithat prevailed. The experimental station has, apparently, no use for tumble-down fences, dilapidated gato. dirty yards, or dill'ereut slip-panel's, or any of those many drawbacks tlwt seem inseparable from tin- farms as a rule. Tile area of the farm is about 400 acres, situated in open anil easy-rolling eouu-

try. It is somewhat difficult to" understand why the Government selected this site, for it is nearly two miles away from the nearest railway station, and the express trains do not stop there to set down visitors. The Agricultural Department, however, endeavors to facilitate visits.to the farm by having vehicles sent to meet small parties at Waverley, but the Railway Department can only be persuaded to stop its express trains at the Momohaki station by a guarantee of a very large party. It seems strange that the Railway Department, whose financial success must be commensurate with and dependent on the prosperity of the farmers, should be allowed thus to plate difficulty in the way of those farmel's who are taking one of the very best steps to increase the productiveness of the land and incidentally to swell the volume of the railway trallic. The main carriage drive runs along an avenue bordered on either side by specimen hedge plants, which constitute the first lesson to be learned at this veritable storehouse of agricultural knowledge. A large nunilier of Thursday's visitors loitered up this avenue, despite the allurements of a capital luncheon, and found much to interest them in comparing the live fences of box:hum, barbery, eleagnus, japonica, osage, eupressus, and escallonia, and other varieties. The best fences seemed to be of eleagnus, escallonia, laurel, and boxthorn, but the experiment lost most of its value from the fact that the trees or plants are sheltered by a belt of pinus insignis and Scotch firs—a thing impossible from the commercial standpoint of ordinary farming. And there was nothing to show how the plants would have fared in the open, the usual condition on the farm, as a breakwind. The farm buildings are not at all pretentious, unless the designs of the stables anil so forth come under that heading from the fact that they are more complete than are usually found on a farm where tlie main object seems to be to make mon»y without spending any, a description true of all too many places in the Taranaki province. In the nurseries Y experiments' with fniit trees and ornamental plants are carried out, as well as trials of vegetables. A good deal of interest was taken in the Espalier system of growing apples, this style of thing being absolutely new to many of the party, despite the fact that it has been in use at this experimental station for some years. The trees were planted out as two-vear-olds, two feet apart, and trained along wires, to all intents and purposes a four-wire fence. The wires are 4ft Bin apart, and the intervening spaces have been used for vegetable crops. The advantages of this system are that there is a great saving of ground, and that the trees do not rob more ground than they actually occupy. Mr. Chapman, who has charge of this section, told us that by his sys-

tem it was Jmssible to get as many trees in one acre of land as in four acres under the ordinary system of planting, and the yield was increased l>y fully three tons to the acre. At the same tiuic the Espalier system was valuable as giving the grower every chance of attending the trees for pinning, spraying, etc., and the trees, being kept low, do not get knocked about by the wind. The fruit trees trained on li'ii'f netting on the fences and on specially-built 8-foot walls, proved a great attraction, demonstrating the feasibility of growing almost to perfection tender fruit, such as peaches, even in this uncongenial climate (for fruit). The trees are set alongside a wall, and trained along wire netting fastened to the wall in the shape of a fan. Getting the full value of the sun, and securing comparative immunity from winds, the trees go on and bear splendidly. Among the pears there were some real surprises for visitors, some live and six year old trees bearing magnificently, whereas the usual thing is for the trees to be unprofitable up to perhaps fifteen years. The pear trees themselves arc planted only a few feet apart, and arc trained along a single wire or cordon. Others are planted in regular orchard style. The secret of the dwarfed-size, an early l>earing, lay in the fact that the trees had been worked or grafted on quince stocks, which, of course, are

dwarfs. Some varieties will not make a good "union" on the <piince, so the orchardist in those cases Jirsi works a peai on the stock. and then works the desired variety ou the pear; this is called "double working." Up till a little while ago the overseer used to sell young trees at wholesale rates, but the nurserymen entered a protest against this, and it had to be stopped. It is confidently asserted bv the mail in charge that the fruit section could easily be made a financial success, but as they are nut allowed to fill orders the country has to bear tbe cost of conducting it. The hothouses and flower beds are not extensive, but tbe plants are exceptionally fine. The greatest interest was shown in the turnip manuring experiments. Kxhaustive trials liave been carried out on a large field, turnips being grown without manure and with all kinds of manures and mixtures of manures. The actual results of the experiments cannot, of course, be given until tbe crops arc saved, but the farmers present gained a good many points from merely noting the different growths under the different manure*. The crops were sowed in the ordinary way. but, in marked contrast to the working of the farms of the colony, they have had a certain amount of care during their growth, having been cultivated once or twice with the horse hoe, and the turnips chopped out to a reasonable distance apart, at a cost of from 12s to 14s an acre for the hoeing. A farmer expressed the opinion that that was a lot of expenditure., but Mr. (inlanders said it was money very well spent, and he thought that it would soon be done by all fanners who were trying to get the best results. It was hard to believe that Ihe manured plots could show such a vast increase in crop over the unmanured ones. The average on this iarm for unmanured crops has been found to be one ton 13cwt lip'. IHVb. All the manures have been tried with three different (juantities—lewt, 2ewt. and 3 cwt. to the acre, and the following average struck over sixteen of the proprietary mixtures shows the following increases over the unmanured plots: —lewt to the acre: average, 22% tons per acre, at a cost of 3d per ton of roots for manure; 2cwt to the acre: average, 25 l / 2j tous. cost s '/.d per ton of [roots for manure; 3cwt to the ton, aver!age 20% tons, cost 7 \U\ per ton of roots. Thus, at Moniohaki, the unmanured crop is practically worthless, whilst nearly 30 tons per acre can be obtained for an expenditure of 7d or 8d per ton of roots. Manuring, then, seems to pay. It is worth while to note that the* manures are not ordered by the Government from the manufacturers, but are obtained in the ordinary way from retail dealers or agents. Otherwise the experiments might not be worth quoting.

A considerable area is devoted to the cultivation of mangolds, which Mr. Gillanders recommends as better cattle fodder than turnips one reason for this being that mangolds do not taint the milk as turnips do. Mangolds are especially valuable this year, for they are not affected by the blight, whil-t the turnips even at Momohaki are rotting badly. Mr. Gillanders states that there has not been a failure in mangold crop* on the farm m the last ten years.

Other experiments were with maize and sorghum, which the overseer considers should be grown by every dairy farmer, yields of from 40 lo 50 tons of green fodder per acre being obtainable with very little trouble. A Xorth Taranaki fanner, one of the society's meml»ers, said lie preferred the maize to the sorghum, as it was more edible by the cattle. His practice was to cut the maize ill tlie morning, and to feed it to the cattle at night, and the animals seemed to thoroughly enjoy the food. At the same time it is worth noting that in our own district three crops of sorghum have brcn grown in one season, and that this his an advantage over maize in thai it keep*; green later in the season, and does not have the -aiae tendency lo «_'H woody.

The gra:-.- plots were. «»t* course, led in good order at this time of the year, and the sheep-feeding experiments had been completed, and the results already reduced to print.

The slock on the farm consist* of some seven thoroughbred entires, a Shirt l stallion (Dimmer Signal), two Shire mares, and it number of cattle. The little Kevries and De.xter-Kcrrie* attracted a deal of attention, many of the party having conceived an idea that these dwarf cuttle had bodies only about as large as ordinary calves. whereas it is the abbreviated lej;* that they ave principally deficient. Tlicy are nr>t likely to be much in vogue in woody coiuitrv,

as tliey would lie terribly subject I o torn udilers. There arc also some 500 sheep, iiiul about 1500 head of poultry ami dueks.