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Graphic: An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand 1966.

Warning

This information was published in 1966 in An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand, edited by A. H. McLintock. It has not been corrected and will not be updated.

Up-to-date information can be found elsewhere in Te Ara.

SOIL CONSERVATION

Contents


Aerial Topdressing

In many of the large catchments on hill and high country where erosion and run-off were most severe, there remained a further problem – that of phosphate deficiency. As long as topdressing had to be done by hand alone, no major development was possible to restore fertility, improve protective pasture cover, and increase production on millions of acres of hill country. It was against this background that proposals were drawn up, financed by the Soil Conservation Council, for the original aerial topdressing trials and large-scale demonstrations in 1947–49. These captured the imagination and enterprise both of farmers and of operators to the extent that over 5 million tons of phosphate have been distributed by aircraft, largely on hill country. This has been supported by oversowing of grasses and clovers, by weed spraying, fence dropping, and rabbit poisoning. Unfortunately this improvement of pasture, which lays the foundations of a conservation farming system, has forged ahead of the capacity of catchment boards to support it by the necessary supplementary conservation practices.