Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. SATURDAY, JUNE 8, 1929. SCIENCE AND THE SOIL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 49, Issue 199, 8 June 1929, Page 4

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. SATURDAY, JUNE 8, 1929. SCIENCE AND THE SOIL.

* Two items in the cable news a couple of days ago were of particular interest to the farming community. One announced that a gift of £20,000 had been made to the Adelaide University as a fund to develop soil research, and the other stated that a recent visitor to the Dominion had strongly urged those engaged in the dairying industry in JNew South Wales to adop.t the methods pursued in thisi country. The two items in conjunction are but indications of the tendency toward development of all possible means of meeting, while at the same time intensifying, the competition between the primary producers the world over. It is interesting and instructive to recall the warning that was uttered by Sir John Russell, .the English authority on agricultural research, at the conclusion of his tour of New Zealand some months ago. Primitive peoples, be remarked, were giving up war as their main occupation and devoting themselves generally i to cultivating the soil. Tfye low standards of living which- satisfied them made them, as" competitors, formidable to people whose greater demands on life acted as a positive handicap in the struggle. The remedy for the farmer in more advanced countries, suggested Sir ' John, was greater efficiency in methods of production and marketing l . The exact illustration he quoted was the case of Eastern people growing wheat. They could not. he said, sro in for dairying, which was, perhaps, fortunate for New Zealand. No doubt it is, but the New Zealand dairy farmer should not think that, because Sir John Russell's Arabs are not potential competitors, his citadel is safe from attack. The Imperial Economic Committee has warned the dairy farmer that the struggle in his markets will probably become more intense in the near future. Unless he can meet it by greater efficiency, the New Zealand farmer may be forced to accept lower standards of living. That possibility is what justifies the existence of the research stations and organisations Sir John Russell praised. Their efforts to apply the latest scientific discoveries and methods to New Zealand conditions and problems are an organised defence of New Zealand standards of living against attack. They can do much, but their labours cannot bear full fruit unless the farmers co-oper-ate by supporting them wholeheartedly and by striving earnestly to apply the results of their efforts to the actual work of the farm. Science can do much toward assuring efficiency, but! the farmer and the scientist must combine in the practical application of science to the soil.