of all matters relating to their tillage and animal husbandry. A long period of education is necessary before the tempo of progress can be expected to increase appreciably.
Experimental Station.
A small Government Experimental Station existed in the New Territories before the war and this was re-started after the re-occupation. The main emphasis was on in- tensive experiments with crops easily grown by the local farmers. The demonstration plots were visited by many people from various districts, and the interest shown by the farmers appeared to be growing. For example one group of farmers who had combined to undertake collective growing were sufficiently impressed with some of the foreign vegetables produced in the Experimental Station that they were prepar- ing at the end of the year to sow them, as a co-operative village undertaking, for the first crop of 1947. A much larger area of land was allotted by Government towards the end of the year and this will be brought into use as soon as the soil has received the necessary treatment.
Fruit Growing.
Conditions were not favourable for the development of fruit growing during 1946. The trees were for the most part neglected during the Japanese occupation, and considerable attention will have to be given to them before they can bear good crops.
Animal Husbandry.
As regards animal husbandry the most urgent need in September, 1945, was for an adequate supply of animal feed. The import of rice bran from Malaya and Burma for this purpose gave a valuable impetus to pig-raising and to the development of the dairying industry. The bran was distri- buted on a quota basis by the Agricultural Department. Help was also required by the farmers when mild outbreaks occurred first of rinderpest among the cattle and then of swine fever. In both cases the outbreaks were combated by the immediate importation of serum, but preventive measures on a large scale are still required and are under consideration. Steps were taken to improve both the quantity and the quality of pigs in the Colony by the establishment of a pig-breeding station. An up-to-date, but unused, piggery in the middle of the farming district was acquired by the department and a number of good quality cross-bred boars purchased and put there under expert care. The number of boars in the Colony had been reduced to a very small number during the war and the service of these animals was given at a nominal charge. Prejudice against boars of a breed different from those ordinarily used in the Colony was gradually broken down after the quality of the new litters had demonstrated the value of the new blood.
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Photograph by Hedda Morrison
Gathering seaweed for pig food.