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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 3, Issue 9 (January 1, 1929)

“Making the Railways Pay.”

“Making the Railways Pay.”

“Reviews of the last dairying season have specially mentioned the importance of top-dressing in the surprisingly good returns from numerous farms. page 29 Some of the credit for those satisfactory results has been given to the Railway Department, which reduced the freight on fertilser by 40 per cent., thus facilitating a large use of soil-stimulants. This action of the Department is in accordance with its traditional policy, which is consistently one of development of the natural resources. ‘Making the railways pay’ solely from a narrow departmental viewpoint is not so important as making New Zealand prosperous. If the railways are doing this they are paying. In the achieving of this ideal of national welfare the railway transport system is a factor of immeasurable importance, and will continue to be one of the chief factors in the maintenance of the Dominion's prosperity.”

A Three-Colour Art Cover Makes the Appearance Attractive. Top Dress for Top values

A Three-Colour Art Cover Makes the Appearance Attractive.
Top Dress for Top values

Some good points are made in a contribution by the Director of Fields Division, Mr. A. H. Cockayne, who lays down the maxim, “Begin with the best land”:—

“It can be easily shown by reference to thousands of farmers that top-dressing pays, and that it is perhaps the greatest single factor of influence in the increase of New Zealand's production. Therefore it might appear, at first sight, to be advisable to urge all farmers to top-dress, without delay, the whole of their holdings. However, the fact that the majority of farmers have not enough ready money to enable them to carry out such advice clearly indicates that the ideal must be achieved in successive stages of development.

“The way to ensure eventually a sufficient top-dressing of the majority of the Dominion's sown grass lands is to so regulate the practice that a comparatively small initial outlay in manures will yield sufficient profit for the similar treatment of another section of the farm. Each acre that is so top-dressed should be viewed as the potentiality for the improvement of another acre.

“In the examination of any grass farm in New Zealand it can be clearly shown that certain areas are much more productive than others. There is a widespread belief that when a farmer begins to top-dress he should aim to improve his poorer pastures rather than those which, in his opinion, are quite satisfactory. If he has more than enough capital to top-dress all his best pastures, then the treatment of the poorer grass may be profitable, but unless he has such a surplus of money it can be definitely stated that on the vast majority of farms top-dressing should begin on the best grass lands and not on the worst.