SCIENTIFIC FARMING.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 141, 13 June 1908, Page 9

SCIENTIFIC FARMING.

THE VALUE OF EXPERT KNOWLEDGE. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) ASHBUJtTON, Friday. Speaking at the opening of the Ashburton Winter Show to-day, the Hon. R. McNab, Minister for Agriculture, referring to the Agricultural Department's exhibit, said he hoped that if Parliament would give the necessary financial assistance, the principle of making extensive exhibits by the Agricultural Department would be generally extended to country shows, when it would be seen that even first-class farmers had much to learn from the scientist and his laboratory. The farmer must turn out produce which woul stand supreme above that of all competitors. For that he had to have knowledge that could not be acquired within the ring fence of the farm. The farme- required to call science to his r.ssitanee, and unless scientific men could be brought to this country and put under the control of the head of the Department of Agriculture, that knowledge could not be made available. Unless the Government of the Dominion brought these scientists to the doors of the people of New Zealand, their assistance could not be obtained at all. The Department of Agriculture was but in its infancy, and it would have to grow. They showed, that day, material

grown on experimental farms. They wanted men who could put these lessons in concrete form for the benefit of the farmers, for £S0 out of every £100 worth of exports from the Dominion came from the farmers, and only £20 out of every £100 from all the other industries, trades, and occupations. It they wanted to make their industries more valuable and increase their exports they must develop along lines which such a show as theirs represented. He was not able to tell them where the experimental farms of the future would be located, but he was in a position to say that they hoped to have within a fpw years such a system of experimental farms that the work done in connection wi*h thm would be a duplicate of all agricultural work done in .New Zealand. Whether an experimental farm would be placed in Ashburton district was a question for the Department's expert. The Minister was banqueted in the evening.