Hundreds on salt tour

More than 750 farmers attended 5 WISALTS field days at Pithara, Ejanding, Nokanning, Darkan and Wickepin during the last month. The purpose of the field days was to discuss salinity causes and to outline the features of the Whittington reclamation method, with the response showing the growing concern over the salt problem which has ruined some of the most productive farming land in Western Australia. The interceptor bank system outlined by WISALTS is an adaptation of a system used by the Chinese 7,000 years ago. It was modified by the Tennessee Valley Authority and further modified for local conditions by Brookton farmer Harry Whittington. The interceptor system is firstly aimed at keeping the rain where it falls to enable increased cereal and pasture production n the slopes. Farmers were shown how to test drill to find the hard pan and the subsurface soils suitable for building and sealing interceptor banks at the WISALTS field day demonstrations. This article contains three images: an interceptor grade bank holding water in a successfully sealed sand seam on Bruce Woodward's property; part of the large crowd at Pithara inspecting a section of an interceptor bank on Malcolm Mills' property; and John Metcalf Jr. and Koorda WISALTS branch president Neil Henning constructing an interceptor bank with a 4WD tractor. PLEASE NOTE: We are unable to provide a public view of this newspaper article as the copyright is held by the publisher of Farmer and Grazier If you would like to obtain a copy of this newspaper article for research purposes, please ‘request a copy'. This article is part of the WISALTS (Whittington Interceptor Sustainable Agriculture Land Treatment Society Incorporated) Collection