11

H.—29

FIELDS DIVISION. REPORT OF THE DIVISIONAL DIRECTOR. Central Development Farm, Weraroa, sth July, 1918. The, Secretary of Agriculture, Industries, and Commerce. I submit herewith a report summarizing the work of the Fields Division for the year ended 31 st March, 1918. J. Beown, B.Sc.Ag., N.D.A., Director. Work at Headquabtebs, The divisional headquarters were transferred to the Central Development Farm in April, 1917. The circumstances favouring this change were fully referred, to in the last annual report. Although difficulties were experienced at first in connection with accommodation, both office and residential, the operations of the division have not been interfered with or restricted in any measure. On the contrary, administrative and professional work alike have been of unusual volume, while the intimate co-operation between the Biologist and his staff and the division, made possible by the change of headquarters, has been fraught with much good in services rendered to the country generally. Numerous special duties arising out of the war have .'till further widened the scope of the division's activities and responsibilities, and have called for increased efforts at headquarters. Among these may be mentioned work connected with the Sale of Wheat Regulations; promotion of wheatgrowing, and facilitating supplies of seed-wheat to growers ; provision of tractors and harvesting and threshing machinery ; soldiers' settlements ; work and training of discharged soldiers ; employment of religious objectors ; supervision of the work of exempted farmer reservists ; provision of seeds, &c. Training of Student-Assistants. ----- Sixteen student-assistants and six bursary-holders of the Education Department were admitted to the central development farm for training in the principles and practice of agriculture on the 22nd May, 1917. Courses of instruction in biology and agriculture, live-stock husbandry, farm accounts, chemistry and soil technology, and geology and surveying were conducted for these students throughout the year, the whole course being considerably in advance of the ordinary first year's curriculum of an agricultural college. During the year three students resigned to take up farm-work, one to take up educational work in agriculture, and one on account of ill health. Four students left for military service. The operations of the Military Service Act will further reduce the number during the ensuing year, and it is doubtful if more than eight out of the total enrolment will complete their second year. The work of the students has been generally satisfactory, and there is much promise of most of them qualifying in due course for positions as teachers and instructors in agriculture. Many applications and inquiries have been received for vacancies, but owing to the uncertainty of retaining new students and providing adequate instruction during the currency of the war no vacancies.have been filled. Plant-breeding.- —Mr. J. Beverley was transferred from the Moumahaki Experimental Farm to headquarters on the 23rd November last. Under his immediate superintendence a section of 6 acres, with provision for extension, has been developed as a central plant-breeding station ; and although much time was taken up with preparations and preliminaries, good work was done, with a sure promise of most valuable accomplishment in the future. Experimental and Investigation Work. —Experiments and investigations conducted at the headquarters station during the year, in addition to the usual fertilizer and variety tests, which provide cumulative data from year to year, embraced certain defined projects, such as—Calf-rearing methods ; l.he relative values of summer forages for in ilk-production ; pork-production on forage crops ; crosses for fat-lamb production ; temporary pastures for intensive dairy farms. Valuable data were secured along those lines, and will be published in due course. Work oj the Field Officers.- —The Fields Supervisors have made some progress in demonstration and experimental work (vide " Experimental and demonstration work in. districts " later in this report), but their main activities, apart from their supervising functions, have been in the direction of fostering production by personal contact with the farming community, by correspondence, and through their relationship to farmers' associations, soldiers' settlements, local committees, and other developmental agencies. Various propaganda have been taken up tnore or less intensively according to districts. Among these may be mentioned—Wheat-growing ; extension of mangold and summerforage growing, and the conservation of hay in dairying districts ; extension of forage cropping ; the better adaptation of pasture mixtures to soil and environmental conditions ; encouragement of the use of lime ; improvement of fertility by economic rotation, practices ; the intelligent use of fertilizers ; promotion of seed-growing ; special fertility measures for light and dry districts ; the control of weeds by farming-methods.- The efforts of the Fields Supervisors along these lines have been supplemented to a great extent by the headquarters advisory service, the greater part of which, since the Agriculturist, Mr. A. MoTaggart, M.S.A., was called for military service, devolved upon the Director personally. The proposal to inaugurate a definite scheme of farm-management surveys in districts has not yet taken concrete shape. Proposals were made during the year for certain staff changes and appointments which would enable trained direction to be extended to this work, including the instruction in