FARM AND DAIRY.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 March 1922, Page 8

FARM AND DAIRY.

The Herald says that between Pahiatua and Eketahuna, either by road or rail, are very many acres covered with logs and stumps. The land has been in this state for perhaps 20 years or more, and no attempt has been made to improve the holdings on which so much dead timber is a conspicuous fixture. It is obvious that the carrying capacity of the land could be greatly increased. Firewood dealers declare that when some of the farmers are approached for the right to enter on the land, quite a big royalty is asked. Discussing the Nauru phosphate production, Mr. Massey, at Tikitiki stated that in the first year of the British operation of the deposits, 380,000 tons had been exported from Nauru and Ocean Islands. New Zealand had an interest in the islands, and it was its duty to help make the business pay. He had been disappointed to note that in the first year New Zealand had only taken a little more than 20.000 tons of the product, while Australia had taken 200,000 tons. The commodity exported from Nauru contained SO to 90 per cent, of phosphate, while the people of New Zealand had been paying for stuff that had only 30 or 40 per cent. He wanted New Zealand to justify the expenditure in purchasing the islands, and get the value for the) money. Foreign countries were eager to get all the phosphates from Nauru, but it was not considered desirable to sell to them an undeveloped market existed in New Zealand.

A correspondent of the Marton Advocate says: The new discovery, that wheat straw —now almost a drug on the market, and great heaps of which are lying in many paddocks—can be converted into as good a fertiliser as the product of the farmyard, has stirred up vivid practical interest in farmers and gardeners. The gist of the discovery is that certain minute organisms under suitable conditions will break up straw, digest it as it were, and surround it with a sort of sticky jelly. Practical difficulties have been overcome, and it is now possible to treat straw in bulk. The product looks like farmyard manure, and may produce at least as good results.