BOARD OF AGRICULTURE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 134, 30 October 1914, Page 4

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE

A HEAVY ORDER PAPEB. ■ By Tult'gnipu.—ivr Press Association* Wellington, Last Night. The Board of Agriculture held Si lengthy meeting in Wellington yesterday, when a number of questions that had been referred to it by the Minister of Agriculture and by various publio bodies were discussed and recommendations made.

Lengthy reports submitted by ike chairman regarding rural education and the proposal to oiler scholarships to enable New Zealand lada to attend the Melbourne Veterinary School, with a view to their being trained for the public service wero discussed.

The chairman also detailed the steps that had been takes to give effect to 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 Remounts Bill recently passed by the House.

It was further deoided to urge agricultural and pastoral societies to offer more inducements to encourage the breeding of artillery hotsts. After a full-discussion of the knotty problem of noxious weeds, it wag 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 he impossiule to enforce the Act without causing settlers great expense, and probably not effecting the object; that at the suae 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 t { lengthy conference with Mr B. C. Aston, 1F.1.C.F.C.5., who had just returned from Europe and America, and who gave the Board some valuable information about i the supply of phasphatlc and other | manures.

Thc committee appointed to deal with the control of ticks and lice in sheep sub* mittcd 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 Land* regarding limestone deposits in Tfonwatu Gorge, where a section suitable lor lime-burning purposes had been laid off, the reservation of tho Tauhara buah under the Scenery Preservation Board and Grown Lands, and the State plan* tations in the neighbourhood of Taapo and Sotorua. A subcommittee wa« appointed to retort 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 1 cases during shipping operations. It war ®l®o decided to make further inquiries Tegarding the Southi American market , for apples. Two sittings were held to discuss the test course to adopt with regard to Uw , export of wool to foreign countries dw-' ing the present war, and at the dose , the result of the Board's deliberations 011 this question wan submitted to foe Prime Minister.

Arrangements were made to visit the experimental farms at an early date.