The regeneration and maintenance of wimmera ryegrass pastures under saline soil condition

Over the past ten years, Wimmera ryegrass pastures at the Salmon Gums Re- VJ search Station have been improved and maintained by periodic cultivation of the soil even without applications of superphosphate. On heavy crab-holey soil affected by high salt content and unsatisfactory for wheat growing, cultivation treatments have produced remarkably uniform stands of Wimmera ryegrass as shown in the accompanying pictures. The bare patches due to salt, have been largely eliminated. If the interval between cultivations is more than three years Wimmera pastures deteriorate badly

Barrel clover

Results obtained with barrel clover in recent years at the Salmon Gums Re- Al search Station suggest that this legume will play an important part in improving the quality and quantity of the grazing on many farms in the district. It has shown its ability to survive and to build up from small sowings under average rainfall conditions and to produce a large bulk of feed in a wet year By comparison Dwalganup subterranean clover has not done nearly as well

Agricultural Extension in New Zealand

This report is the outcome of a tour of New Zealand during November and December, 1953 made possible through the recommendation of the Western Australian Director of Agriculture (Mr G.K. Baron Hay) and financed under the Commonwealth Extension Services Grant

Aircraft to be used on agricultural advisory work

For the first time in Western Australia, an aircraft will shortly be used as an adjunct to the Department of Agriculture\u27s advisory services. Mr. J. R. M. Wolfe, an advisor on the staff of the Department of Agriculture\u27s North-West Branch, recently took delivery of a canopied Tiger Moth aircraft which he will use for travelling between stations in the Port Hedland district

Cereal variety trials - Results for 1954/55 season

Cereal variety trials are carried out each season to determine the relative yielding ability of varieties produced in this State or introduced from other States. After harvest, grain samples from each wheat trial are forwarded to the Cereal Research laboratory for flour quality tests

Wheat variety trails on research stations, 1953

Each season, wheat variety trials are carried out at the research stations to compare the yielding ability of new varieties produced in this and other Australian States with standard varieties under commercial cultivation. Locally-produced crossbreds included in these trials have been developed to meet the demand for highyielding varieties suited to local conditions. Particular attention has been paid to better straw strength, disease resistance and to improved baking quality

Wheat and barley trials, 1956-57

The results of cereal variety trials on wheatbelt research stations and also a barley trial on the property of Messrs. Hamilton Bros., Moora, are included in two separate articles in this Journal. Trials with wheat and barley are discussed in this article, while the oat variety trials have been incorporated into Oat Trials and Usage in the Wheatbelt, 1956. (See page 551.

Clover disease : Practical Findings and Recommendation for Control

Practical Findings and Recommendation for Control During the past decade an infertility in ewes together with other breeding troubles and abnormalities of the sex organs of sheep became a serious problem in certain regions in Western Australia where pastures were composed predominantly of early (Dwalganup) subterranean clover

The development of Western Australian sand plain soils for agriculture

IN a recently published economic survey of the Australian wheat growing industry, it was reported that nearly two-thirds of the farms surveyed in Western Australia were located on lateritic sand plain. As a random selection was made of the eighty farms that were visited it is reasonable to conclude that a similar proportion of all the State\u27s wheat producing farms are on that type of country. This constitutes a remarkable change from the earlier days of wheat belt settlement when the sand plain soils were regarded as virtually useless and by-passed for development. It is the purpose of this article to give a brief account of the agricultural development of those soils in the south-western part of Western Australia and to consider the factors which have been responsible for the change