He made his mark

Press, 18 February 1977, Page 7

He made his mark

Mr William Cunningham (Bill) Stafford, who died in Timaru this week, was a man who made an exceptional contribution to the improvement of farming in Canterbury, and in South Canterbury in particular.

He was a man of a similar mould to the late Bill Smith in North Canterbury. They were almost legendary figures in their respective districts. Bill Stafford’s main work was done between 1931 and 1953 when he worked with the Department of Agriculture in South Canterbury. They were men for the time. When they came on the scene farming was backward and run down. Thev saw what was needed to lift it out of the doldrums and also extremely practical as well they won the confidence and gratitude of a host of farmers. Mr Stafford completed a diploma at Lincoln College before joining the Department of Agriculture in 1927, and 22 years later his old college honoured him with its Bledisloe medal, in

recognition of the part he had played in helping bis district to achieve a national reputation for pasture improvement, outstanding seed production, cropping efficiency and experimental, irrigation. The report on which the] college’s board of gover-i nors based its award of the medal, said that Mr Stafford had a unique record in the country. At the time of his appointment to Timaru pastures as a whole were poor and short-lived, They were almost invariably sown with a crop and without lime. Mr Stafford concentrated on pasture improvement and introduced greenfeed and a fallow into the rotation. His work on lim-i ing and pastures laid the] foundation for his success! in South Canterbury. Seed production was a natural corollary of his I work and he was quick to see the possibilities of im- i proved strains of grasses! and clovers.

He had a hand in all; phases of agricultural; development in the district,! including irrigation and the' war-time development of linen flax growing. And he was also a farmer himself. A measure of what people thought of him was! that banks and mercantile! firms would finance farmers on his word.