NOT TOO GOOD

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Volume 59, Issue 101, 31 May 1930, Page 3

NOT TOO GOOD

THIS YEAR'S HAWKE'S BAY MAIZE CROP. WORK OF HARVESTING COMMENCES. MAIZE SOFTEIl THAN LAST YEAR. With the harvesting of the maize erops now in progress practically throughout Hawke's Bay, it is possible to arrive at a rough approximation of the season's yield, and observations point to the fact that the yield is not likely to prove as successfui as was the case last year. The cohs this year are, generally speaking, not as long, while the maize has not matured so well and is mucli softer. Conditions such as these were found to be tlie rule on six properties visited, all in different parts of the district, and the general opinion seems to he that in many cases where 60 bushels to the acre was the average yield last year, growers will he fortunate te obtain from 50 to 55 bushels this year. There seems to have been a considerably larger area planted in maize m Hawke's Bay this year than was the case last year, and it is very apparent that a change of seed would liave a beneficial effeet. It would certainly pay growers to experiment with a few'new .varieties in place of strains that are getting worked out. A Hawke's Bay grower, who has just returned from a visit to Poverty Bay, had an opportunity of observing some cases of the blight that has affected the maize in some parts of that area. He tells me that a blaek mark develops on all the cobs affected, completely ru in ing them. T heard of a case yesterday of a native grower out Fernhill _ way who cut the flowers off his maize plants and fed them to his cows, thinking thus to improve the growth of his cobs by gjving them the full benefit of the nutriment derived By the plant from the soil. It had, of course, exactly tlie opposite effect, and his cohs where this was done are only lialf the normal size.