USE OF FERTILISERS.

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20272, 14 August 1937, Page 26 (Supplement)

USE OF FERTILISERS.

EFFECT ON PRODUCTION. EXTENSION ADVOCATED. “At present just about 3,000,000 acres of grassland is top-dressed anuually in New Zealand," said Mr A. H. Cockayne, Director-general of Agriculture, in his presidential address to the New Zealand Grassland | Association in Dunedin, "and one i could say without hesitation that j there is at least another 3,000,000 acres capable of equal, if not greater response to that already top-dressed. Our present top-dressing bill for fertilisers is somewhere under two million pounds, and at a moderate estimate it is responsible for an added 10 to 12 million pounds’ worth of production. My suggestion is that tho New Zealand farmer should add another two millions to Ills fertiliser bill and cash in on the result." During Hie past few years there had been many areas throughout Now Zealand where previous experience indicated that, only inferior grasses could be established, but which now', after top-dressing, were carrying swards capable of producing over 200 Ih of butterfat an acre. Touching on future grassland problems, Mr Cockayne said that there was the great area of 14 million aor?s of tussock grassland, poorer to-day than it was a generation ago, where the problems were fundamentally different from those of the lowland or forest derived grassland. "There is tho broken and steep hill country on which millions have been spent in converting from forest Into grass, steadily deteriorating, and where subdivision, stock concentration and top-dressing are not applicable," he went on, "I mentioned earlier that wo are top-dressing three million acres to-day, and that we should at. he doing six. If we did, probably another three million aeres would bp bpnoflt«d. Add to this area, three million acres of rotation I grass in the arable belt, and that makes 12 million acres. Our total grassed Rrrpagp Is 32 millions, leaving i In round figures 20 millions, whh'h represent the real and difficult i land problem of the future.”