ADVICE TO FARMERS

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LII, Issue 8474, 20 December 1923, Page 8

ADVICE TO FARMERS

NEED FOR SCIENTIFIC METHODS. A. plea, for the adoption of muie scientific methods of farming in New Zealand was made by Sir James Wilson at a social gathering at the conclusion of the annual meeting of the Dominion Farmers' Institute on the 14th inst (says the Wellington Evening Post). The immense forests of the Dominion had been carelessly swept away, in many cases from land which could never produce any better crop than trees, and which was now producing a crop of weeds. We had not dealt fairly with such lands, and it was for the present and succeeding generations to; make this good. There was a deplorable lack of the study* of nature in our primary schools, and also in the means of imparting scientific knowledge to producers. In this respect we were a long way behind other countries. Not only must we have proper teach ear's, but we required the; means of training an' ever-increasing number of them. Knowledge of the relation of plant life to the soil was necessary to successful farming. We had, in a rough and ready way, learned to produce certain crops, but science must be called to our 1 aid. We must rear more of such men as Sir Ernest Rutherford, one of the foremost scientists of the world. The speaker further stressed the enormous wastage caused by weeds.