Good Rice Can Be Grown
pp. 29-30 · Read in the full issue
In Bsi
Experiments carried out in 1944-45 prove that good yields of rice can be obtained from the plains of Guadalcanal, BSI, using machine methods of planting and sowing the crop early in the wet season, which begins about December.
The results of the test plantings are recorded in the March issue of the “Fiji Agricultural Journal.”
Six varieties of rice were planted— some varieties under certain conditions yielding up to 100 bushels per acre. The grain was sown on an area typical of
thousands of acres of Guadalcanal grass country. The area used had been used by the US Army immediately before to grow one crop of maize. No fertiliser was planted with the rice, but the Americans had used 400 pounds of fer tiliser and 200 pounds of sulphate of ammonia per acre, with their maize.
No system of irrigation was used, but small banks were constructed to impede run-off of natural water. For the first five months after planting about 50 inches of rain fell.
A horde of caterpillars threatened to eat the young rice when it was a month old, but these were dealt with success fully by dusting with Paris-green. Stem boring caterpillars were present in all the varieties of rice, but these did no serious damage.
A plant found on the reef near Korolevu Bay (Fiji) bears a remarkable resemblance to a red rose. When taken out of salt water it appears to die, but revives immediately salt water is poured in the jar. Attempts are being made to have it identified. It is an interesting and, “C?o^ nt Cnlnn^^- er rare reef P lant — Crown Colonist.