FARM AND DAIRY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 219, 16 March 1914, Page 6

FARM AND DAIRY.

EXPERIMENTAL PLOTS AT WAITAKA. The executive of the Waitara Chamker of Commerce has made arrangements with the Department of Agriculture for the use of two plots of land for demonstration purposes. Mr. Bayliss, the Fields Inspector of the Department, has made two visits to the district, and last week selected two plots of three acres each on the farms of Mr. H. M. Purdie, of Waihi, and of Mr. Gaustad, on the Tikorangi road. Mr. Bayliss sent samples of the soil from the farms to Wellington for analysis, and the Chamber has now received the following communication:—"l visited Waitara on March 3, and likewise visited the properties of Mr. Purdie and Mr. Gaustad, and saw the land offered. I have decided that it would be desirable to enlist the services of both these gentlemen, which will enable the work to be done in duplicate, which is always advantageous. I have selected part of the boundary paddock on Mr. Purdie's property which fronts the road, and I have also selected the land to be used on Mr. Gaustad's. The area required on each property will be three acres, in order to supply the necessary number of plots, which plots will he iialf-an-acres each. Convenient size for the plots would be three chains by one and two-third chains, or two chains by two and a-half chains, or five chains by one chain. However, these must be cut out to suit the size and shape ( of the paddocks. The necessary scheme, seeds and manure will he supplied by us. an-l all labor necessary will have to he supplied by the farmer as required. hi order to he able to arrive at the benefit of the treatment given to the soil, it would he desirable to follow out the scheme for consecutive seasons, and of course the crops must not be in any way utilised until whatever records may be required have been taken, but there will not be much difficulty in that matter. I will communicate personally with Messrs Purdie and Gaustad, and it will he desirable that operations should be started as soon as we can make the necessary arrangements for so doing.— Yours, etc., G. de S. Baylis, Fields Instructor (X.P.)"

NEWS AXI) NOTES. A well-known Xnrth Canterbury fanner, who has just returned from a visit to South Canterbury, chatting with a Sun representative, remarked that the last week had seen a great deal of harvesting work completed and very little grain remains out. There is a'rather big proportion of damaged grain about, and he forecasted a sharp advance in wheat at an early date. "The rise in Australasia and at Home will no doubt keep the Australasian dour off the local markets, so T should not be surprised to see good milling wheat touch 4s per bushel within the next few weeks," he stated. The damage to the potato crop by blight, he gathered, had not been over-estimated, and in addition the Hoods of the early summer had drowned considerable areas. A feature of this season's harvest, in Australia (says the Pnstoralists' Review) has been the disappointing yields. Crops that promised well panned out badly. A large portion of the crops in the Eastern Rivcrina and south-west slopes of Xew South Wales has suffered severely this season, and has yielded considerably lower than appearances suggested. The general opinion of farmers is that there were three contributing causes to the failure, viz., (1) the dryness in the early part of the season; (2) the late frosts; and f3l the hot winds which eventually followed the frosts. One man stated that lie had noticed that the crop near the trees, which was sheltered, yielded a much better sample and quality of grain than in previous years, and that led to the conclusion that the frosts and hot winds were mainly responsible for the non-filling of the grain.