7

H.—29a

Supplies of Rape and Turnip Seed. The position regarding the supply of turnip and rape seed, concerning which the Imperial Government had placed some restriction on exportation from Great Britain, was brought under the Board's notice by Mr. Pope, Secretary of Agriculture, who forwarded a note from the Department's Biologist stressing the urgent necessity for placing before the proper authorities the very grave results that would follow an embargo on the export of this seed from Great Britain. Mr. Pope stated that the stocks of seed in the Dominion were very low, and that representations had already been made to the High Commissioner, who had replied that there had been no trouble up to the present, but that he was watching the position very carefully. It was decided to write to you pointing out the importance of securing adequate supplies of seed, and the following resolution was passed : — " That in order to obviate as far as possible any difficulty in procuring supplies of the turnip and rape seed necessary for the Dominion's requirements, the Board of Agriculture recommend the Hon. Minister of Agriculture to communicate with the High Commissioner in London requesting him to endeavour to obtain the necessary exportation permits for the seed." Later information, however, led us to expect that there would be greater difficulty than the High Commissioner seemed to anticipate. In these circumstances the matter was treated as one of urgency, and Mr. Brown, Director of the Fields Division, and Mr. Cockayne, Biologist, were asked to attend the conference between our Board and the National Efficiency Board to go into the question. In relation to red-clover seed, which has risen considerably in price, it was pointed out that if we had the right kind of humble-bee in New Zealand we could not only grow sufficient for our own purposes, but also probably become a large exporting country. We therefore recommend that further inquiries should be made, and, if possible, importations of the red-tailed humble-bee made on behalf of the Government. At present the difficulty is that at the time when the clover is in flower the humble-bee we have here hatches out too late, and the fertilization is often imperfect. The humble-bee which does the bulk of this work in the north of England and in Scotland hatches out earlier, and would be better suited for our purpose. The white clover is fertilized by the ordinary bee, and it seems strange that while white clover is so very high-priced, and our seed ranks with the wild white clover which is in such demand in Europe, more of this seed is not grown in New Zealand. With reference to the.supply of turnip, swede, rape, and mangold seed, all the exporters of these seeds require a license before they can be exported from Great Britain. It was stated that a very considerable quantity of rape-seed was successfully grown in New Zealand, and that the difficulty with turnips and swedes is that they require to be kept through the winter and allowed to go to seed the following spring. The seed, however, does not ripen until too late as a general rule for the sowing of that season's crop. Mangold-seed is fairly easily grown, but subject to great loss through birds, as is also rape and turnip seed when ripe. Mr. Cockayne doubted whether it would pay New Zealand to grow seeds in preference to what might be considered more profitable and easy production. The members of the Board, however, seemed to think that a large proportion of the seed that was used in New Zealand could be profitably grown in the Dominion, and especially so under present conditions. As the result of that meeting it was decided— " That the Secretary of the Department of Agriculture be written to and asked to arrange for more information regarding seed-growing, to be supplied to farmers by the Department's experts through the columns of the Journal of Agriculture, such information to take the form of notifying results of seed-growing experiments and demonstrations carried out not only in New Zealand but also in Europe and other parts of the world, as well as any other information that would be of assistance to farmers in the Dominion, so that they might be encouraged to develop this industry until the bulk of the seeds required in the Dominion were locally produced." Subsequently some of the members of the Board, with myself, had an interview with the National Efficiency Board, whose information indicated that the prospect of the importation of seed was not in such a satisfactory position as had been anticipated, and a large quantity, mostly of garden seeds, was prohibited from being exported at all, and licenses for other seeds were being cut down. It was further pointed out that so far as next spring sowings were concerned anything that could be done in the way of growing seeds of the Brassica tribe would be too late for the coming spring except in the case of the later-sown crops. There was yet time to allow areas of rape to be set aside for seed, and it might be possible also to secure areas of swedes and other turnips at present growing for this purpose. This, however, may entail a spraying of these crops so as to secure them from blight during the winter. In order to ascertain the position in which the merchants in New Zealand were placed with regard to stocks, and licenses which would be granted for export of seed from Great Britain, a circular letter was sent out; by the Board to those firms who act as agents for the various seedgrowing firms in Great Britain. The replies received indicate that so far exporters in England had only procured from 50 per cent, to 75 per cent, of the orders sent to Great Britain. Some of the varieties, we presume, because of a larger supply, would be granted the higher rate, while those in scarce supply would probably only get the lower rate. The position was later discussed by myself with Mr. Cockayne, who seemed to think that it might be possible to get a further supply of the scarce seed by limiting some of the others that were not used so much, and encouraging the further growth of seeds which might be used for later sowings. The Department of Agriculture arranged with the Government Statistician for a census