GOOD FARMING MAXIMS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 59, Issue 44, 1 December 1938, Page 8

GOOD FARMING MAXIMS.

COMMERCIAL HUSBANDRY. In opening the Northern Rhodesia. Show at Kafue, Lord Bledisloe, chairman of the Rhodesian-Nvasaland Royal Commission, said that he wished, as an old farmer, to emphasise certain maxims of commercial husbandry which could never be too often repeated in an agricultural country. These were:— (I) .“Do not have all your eggs in one basket.” He was told that a bacon factory was not an economic proposition in the colony, but would remind farmers that no small-scale dairy farm anywhere in the country would have been a success unless it went hand in hand with pig-keeping. There ought to be scope with a little enterprise, experience, and capital, to run a small-scale bacon factory for the benefit of both pig-keepers and dairy farmers.

(2) “A sire is worth.half the herd or flock;” and farmers should not spare money in buying their sires. * • (3) It costs almost as much to feed bad animals as good ones. (4) It sometimes pays to send your crop to market on four legs. Maize growers and producers of wheat, ison-key-nuts and other crops should keep this in mind.

(5) Every fattening animal must progress continually. If it is not putting on flesh it is losing money. (6) A by-product might represent the whole .profit available to farmers.’ He had for 12 years commanded the highest price for cheese on the London market, hut considered that the whole of the profit ho got out of cheese-making was obtained from by-products such as feed for his pigs.

(7) “Uniformity is even more important than occasional high quality.” If farmers wanted a good market, they should aim at uniformity all the time. (8) “Produce wlmt your public wants and not what you think they ought to want.”

(9) “You cannot do without science. Always make your scientist demonstrate the value of scientific discoveries in terms of pounds, shillings and pence.”