The writer wishes to apologise for the absence of definite figures, statistical data, and definite up-to-date facts on the subject, but if the paper brings forth a discussion, or an interest in the following matter some useful object has been achieved
A growing plant obtains energy from the sun’s rays and fertility from the soil and transforms these raw materials into wholesome food for man and beast. Without plant food we cannot have plant life. . Withdrawals of soil fertility must be replenished. Farm animal manures, plant refuse, meat works manures and chemical fertilizers constitute the principal means used to offset these losses.
Professor Stapledon, working with Cocksfoot, has shown that ecoty-pes offer favourable material on which to commence breeding strains suitable for a particular habitat. that material and simple selection considerable progress may be made without a rational understanding of the genetic fundamentals underlying the results, The object of this paper is to discuss some genetical data relative to Cocksfoot breeding and to include information emphasising the importance of a knowledge of the genetic make up of the individual.
"The greater the change, the greater the resistance to such change;" is a truism relating to human nature, and is particularly applicable in the realm of Agriculture.
Mr R. A. Calder and I are engaged in the breeding of lucerne, and because such a project necessitates an intimate knowledge of the pollination and fertilization of the crop under consideration, appropriate investigations have been undertaken.
Common methods adopted to ascertain the nutritional value or quantity and quality of grass and other foodstuffs include changes in live weight, improvement in health and production,chemical analyses- naked eye responses to fertilisers, tons per acre, and so on.
Investigators in the course of analysis of herbage samples appear to have treated the determination of moisture as one of the simple determinations which can hardly go wrong. Various workers have used dryi-ng ovens at 1000 - 103O and have left samples in the ovens for periods of six to twentyfour hours. Probably each worker has kept to a fairly constant procedure and by this means has obtained duplicates which agree within reasonable limits. Naturally they have taken the results so obtained to be correct.
It is not the object of this paper to supply specific information on the behaviour of pasture plants under various conditions of fertilization. I shall at,tempt to review some of the results obtained in work on various organisms, in the search for those principles which are fundiental to the phenomena forming the subject of this paper; fundamentals which, I admit,.may -q. not generally allow of a direct application in economic plant breeding, but which may ,lead the way to new ideas and. to 'new methods of procedure.
The object of this paper is to record some findings associated with the establishment and irrigation of permanent pasture on light land in Canterbury.
Recent research on grassland problems has made prominent the importance of strain in pasture species, The strains of grasses and clovers sown determine to a very large extent for what purpose the pasture is most suited, what its carrying capacity will be, and also the extent of its useful life, most of the pasture species when studied show some strain difference, and so it is the object of this paper to deal with the strain differences which occur in the Leguminous species which have been studied at the Plant Research Station.
It is probable that within every plant species there is great variation, whether it be growth, habit, disease resistance, seed or flower production, or longevity.
As during recent years ever increasing attention is being given to the utilisation of pastures by pigs, it seems worthwhile to examine the intrinsic worth of some of the methods of grazing which are being practised or advocated.
An area of 5,500 acres in extent, of which 1,590 acres is leasehold, known as the Titipua Block, was acquired by Sir Wm. D. Hunt in 1928, at a nominal figure.
An attempt was made by the writer at Lincoln College in 1928-29 to field out a few facts about the reaction of red clover relative to its environment tid to the possibilities of improving its production.
There is no need to point out to a meeting of this Association the great economic importance, particularly to New Zealand, of pasture grass, nor to refer to the advances that have been made in the management of grasses in their utilisation as food for domestic stock.
The subject matter of this paper is based on two somewhat seemingly diametrically opposed concepts: (1) Stock in large numbers adequately fed make the country. (2) Stock in large numbers inadequately fed ruin the country
The subject matter of this paper received very little attention until the end of the great War, until which time farmers had been engaged almost continuously in a process of breaking in land of natural.
There is nothing new in what I am going to say every real farmer and gardener realises the importance of a good seed bed at sowing time and understands the principles and practice involved in its preparation.
The pastoral lands of Canterbury and Marlborough embrace a very large tract of country and within this area is to be found a considerable range of Climate.
Soil surveys today are made by mapping soils as they exist in nature. A soil type is recognised in the field by the peculiarities Of its profile and is mapped accordingly, Samples of each soil type are analysed, not as in the past to get fundamental data for the construction of a map, but in order to get specific information about a soil that has already been mapped.
In considering the problem of the satisfactory production of winter grown crops for stock feeding, there are special features apart from the actual husbandry, which may weigh heavily in their favour when balanced against the cost of producing such crops.
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