In March 1952 an outbreak of destructive caterpillars caused severe damage to pastures in parts of the North Auckland Peninsula. Hordes of these caterpillars with ravenous appetites. completely defoliated pastures in a few days and caused considerable losses to some farmers.
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(60 KB)In considering the development of scrub gumlands in Northland, it must be borne in mind that the term gumland covers a wide range of podsolised soil types derived from a variety of sedimentary soils, and if the presence of gum holes and a strongly leached soil allows land to be classed as gumland, the term could be extended to some mature soil types derived from volcanic dolerite. The vegetation on the gumlands is mainly manuka scrub, fern, and varieties of rushes and sedges. Frequent burning has prevented regeneration of other species
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(94 KB)This paper is not intended to deal in detail with .the methods of development of unimproved scrubland in North Auckland, that aspect will be covered in the field this afternoon. At this stage I propose to mention more particularly the background of North Auckland country-vegetative cover and tenure-the present activities of the Lands and Survey Department in classifying sill unimproved land, and the ,development of unimproved Crown land. Kirk writing in 1869 said’ of Whangarei northward : “The general vegetation over the whole country is alternate bush, open scrubby land, and open fern land, there being very little natural grass land, the largest area being at the North Cape and even there the prevailing species are not indigenous to New Zealand. The whole country has been at no distant time covered by bush . . .”
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(58 KB)Mr Scott has told you something of the machines which are available for digging tile trenches, Mr Bowler has given you an outline of how Massey College is endeavouring to meet the demand for farm drainage in the Manawatu, and Mr Banfield has dealt with surface drainage of land with little or no fall and where water cannot flow freely from under-drains.
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(333 KB)The subject of this paper is the large area of non-cultivable hill country now in production in the land area mostly north of Auckland City, the North Auckland Land District. It has been broken in, for the most part from standing bush, and to a less .extent scrub and fern, and carries the greater part of the sheep population of this area, which is approximately 1,400,OOO plus a high percentage of the beef cattle, some 230,000.
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(106 KB)In Northland, as elsewhere in New Zealand, the Maori was the first tiller of the soil. He used fern roots for food supplemented by produce of the forest and sea, but he also cultivated areas for the kumara, the taro, the gourd, and the yam. Possibly the first reference to Maori agriculture in Northland was made by Captain Cook in December, 1769, when he spoke of 40 to 50 acres of land cultivated and planted with roots on an island in the Bay of Islands as well- as considerable areas of kumaras on the mainland. It was through the action of Cook and other early visitors that the Maori added pork to his diet.
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(579 KB)Over the last 7 years a farm drainage service which has been in increasing and outstanding demand from farmers throughout the Wellington Province and Hawkes B,ay has been in operation from Massey Agricultural College.
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(210 KB)In his paper on sub-tropical grasses Mr Arnold dealt with the characteristics of paspalum and its growth requirements. I will now discuss the place of this grass in the Bay of Plenty.
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(56 KB)It is now well recognised that within almost any species of pasture plants there are distinct varieties or strains which differ in certain characters such as colour, growth habit, herbage yield, disease resistance, flowering time, or persistency. Plant breeders produce bred strains that are superior in some particular characters to the strains already in existence. In pasture plants most of the plant breeding will be toward increasing the yield of herbage, so that a simple and reliable method of measuring production is essential for this work.
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(146 KB)The Dargaville Demonstration Farm consists of 125 acres about 2 miles north of Dargaville. The farm carries a milking herd of about 65 cows plus replacements. It is controlled by a committee of local farmers with the local Fields Instructor of the Department of Agriculture as chairman, and a grant is made by the Department of Agriculture to this committee to enable the carrying out of a programme of experimental, work.
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(129 KB)Progress in any industry is accelerated by the availability of suitable machinery to do the work. Farming, and particularly farm drainage, is no exception. I would suggest that, with the increasing availability of such drainage machinery as this paper m,entions, there are great possibilities for farm drainage in Northland. In fact, the stage is set for rapid improvements in farm drainage, which offer: great opportunities for increasing production. This applies not only on what is now undeveloped land, but also, and to a far greater extent, on land that is being farmed today and is already cleared, fenced, and supplied with the necessary buildings. There is a big future for mechanised farm drainage in North Auckland partly because there is no alternative if farming is to be fully developed, and partly because of the recent developments in machinery to do this work. Because of the large areas involved,there is no possibility of doing the work by hand, so machinery offers. the only solution.
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(111 KB)Few now realise the problems of marginal land development which confronted land improvers 30 years ago. Now we are only half satisfied if we can establish productive pastures of perennial ryegrass and white clover; we look for something better. Then the problem was whether perennial ryegrass was worth trying for or should pastures on gumland be confined to species which appeared likely to thrive, such as browntop, chewings fescue, paspalum, kikuyu, and Lotus nzajor and white clover. If the pastures were confined to this latter group of species, there was little chance of economic, large-scale development, for production costs would not be matched by revenue.
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(27 KB)The ability of kikuyu grass to produce a high quantity of palatable feed and to do so in association with white clover, perennial ryegrass, and other grasses has been observed on numerous farms in Northland
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(34 KB)There is no simple recipe for successful pasture establishment. Many factors have to be considered and each programme adjusted to ensure a good even strike of the sown species, to maintain a vigorous and balanced growth of all without undue suppression of any, and to control weeds.
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(134 KB)Short-rotation ryegrass (or Hl as it is still commonly called) was produced by the Grasslands Division of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research with the idea of combining the good features of Italian and perennial ryegrass-from Italian, rapid establishment, high winter and early spring production, and good palatability; from perennial, relative permanence. It is, in fact, a fair compromise between these two species. It resembles more closely its Italian parent than its perennial. It establishes rapidly, is very palatable to stock, grows vigorously in the winter and early spring, and is relatively low producing in the late summer and early autumn, but is longer lived than Italian.
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(79 KB)The topography of North Auckland is varied and somewhat intricate, as geological structures parallel with the north-west trend of the peninsula are broken across by structures trending north-east parallel with the main axis of New Zealand.
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(253 KB)Situated close to subtropical regions, Northland is subjected to the climatical high-pressure belt of the sub-tropics. The rainfall year is broadly divided into a dry summer season and a wet winter season, giving a contrast which ‘decreases southward from Auckland City away from the high-pressure belt. Heavy rains of short duration and sometimes with little lasting effects occur during summer when sub-tropical lows suddenly come down over .the area. Temperatures are generally and consistently higher than further south, and light frosts are infrequently experienced in certain localities
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(363 KB)Strawberry clover when growing vigorously is difficult to distinguish from white clover. Its stoloniferous growth and creeping habit resemble that of white clover, the leaf colour is similar, but the distinguishing features are the longer and narrower leaflet of the strawberry clover with the veins of each leaflet very much branched and more closely spaced than in white clover. The flower heads differ also. The flower heads of white clover are usually white, but some may have a pinkish tinge. Strawberry clover flowers are slightly pointed and mostly pinkish to white, closely resembling a ripening strawberry; hence the name strawberry clover. As the flowers ripen the florets of white clover turn down toward the ground, whereas in strawberry clover the whole flower .head develops a characteristic “bladdery” appearance with further resemblances to the’ fruit of the common strawberry plant. Strawberry clover seed is larger than that of white clover, but slightly smaller than that of red clover. The seed colour. may vary, but is principally reddish brown or yellow, distmctly flecked, with dark markings.
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(657 KB)In this paper it is not intended to suggest a form of drainage alternative to the more orthodox methods of underground drainage. There are, however, certain conditions under which underground drains cannot possibly function and a form of drainage. referred to as surface drainage must be resorted to.
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