BROADER-MINDED.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 549, 2 July 1909, Page 8

BROADER-MINDED.

''•' ■" / i\ -■' :■''■ '■ '-.' THE BATTLE-SCARRED^"PRACTICAL" , . V v /. ■ ."FARMER..'/ ;.""'.' .' ; AND "SCIENiIFICj , KNOWLEDGE.., One of the most* cheering signs •;. of the. times is the; constant advance of .the farming community toward'fa higHcr'.intelligence.;.The: day when the farmer was''content; to-, eat, drink, sleep, work,; and' be thankful ■are. gone for ever. .To-day the .average' New' Zealand, farmer-is not'content simply to send his produce to the.nea/resVmarket,for sale at.tlie ruling prices. He is; a' keen stiident'.of mar-, kets, and does oven a bit of speculation in a cautious way, Ho is a co-operator through and through , , and even if he has. not already a co-operative concern, in his own disis'sufficiently conversant with; .the elements and the usefulness of such an in- : stitution to be able to meet'his friend and '.adversary, the middleman,, on an equal footing. Co-operation has been a powerful lever in the uplifting of the farmer. ' It has given him.that courage and confidence necessary to a lonely occupation, because it enables iim to feel that the true market value of his iabour i will surely • como, to him—to' feel it .with a satisfaction that no. amount of' fair dealing on the'part of private firms could quite impart. Co-operation has benefited not. only the co-operators .themselves, but;'.others in the same industry working-with privatexfirms, because it has .made comparative uniformity in prices, paid'almost inevitable. This is particularly the. case at dairy factories. It does not by any means follow, of course, that the co-operator always gets the.best returns; but he probably, gets better returns than he would get if there were no-co-operativo societies operating at all. And the-, farmer is always able in time of pressure from mercantile men to "show. his teeth" by saying, "We will" start a co-operative society." The threat is'even effective against existing cooperative societies when a,district is demanding" different treatment, as has lately, happened when creamery districts of a co-opera-tive butter factory have demanded cheese factories in their several localities. • This cohesion of farmers is one of the welcome features'of modern development; for in spite of the business acumen which dairy factory directors -often show when negotiating the salo of the season's output—as the agents know to their sorrow —the'farmer as a whole is> 'by his solitude and his arduous labour) rendered unfitted, on out of form; for- the strain of commercial bargaining.;.. ... , /Then the farmer : of to-day travels.. Only.this year, a visitor to Queensland met 'or hoard of & hundred Now Zealand {armors,'

travelling in that country. . Chiefly they were looking for opportunities to • better them-, selves. .They woro learning tho world. These men who visit; Australia show, by the re-; marks they make- on their return, that they havo closely studied conditious of settlement, soil, climate, : markets, transport facilities, social life,.land-tenure, and tho many other matters that, make- or mar successful settleniont. Some have settled in those other lands, hut many have returned, and will be sure- to stimulato those around them into a greater interest in: matters beyond their boundary fences. While travelling for travelling's sake is not an occupation to be commended" to a farmer whose chief aim is to •niako money, it, has its good use-s, and is'a sign, of a greater desiroi.for enlightenment.. If a, man owned tho ,who|o North Island, for instance, ho would certainly bo rich, and, no doubt, knowledgeable.. But oven the wonderful North Island is not tho world.' Are our farmers becoming scientists ? In other lands scientists havo become farmers, and contributed valuable additions to our agricultural knowledge. In this country, also there arc many men of college training tilling tho soil, and thoso men are quite at homo with the knotty problems of nutritive ratios of stock foods, fertilising ferments of tho soil, unit values of the chief chemical pro : perties of commercial manures, the predominant shortcomings* of their soils, and what medicine will best cure them. They arc men who can follow a'Jearnod dissertation of the Government Chemist .without stumbling over the technical terms, and they can apply tho chemist's theories on their farms as they applied thorn experimentally at college.. But. even outside of this knot of collego farmers, a-romarkablo grip of the sciences of agriculture is frequently exhibited at conferences by broad-tongued old sona of tho soil who in their boyhood schooling probably only barely passed tho necessary fourth standard. When occasionally one of tbeso hard "practical scientists" reveals himself, in the councils of the farmers one cannot help recalling what is sometimes 'said about the superior intellipop.co of the husbandmen of other countries. Experience—rparticularly on the land—is a great teacher to tho man who has, the born gift of learning. .. ••','/.■ .-. -,'■ - ; . Tho crop experiments which are becoming popular in New Zealand are bringing into tho light the, readiness and the ability of the farmers to grasp tho elements of scientific agriculture;'and.though, it. will always, perhaps, be difficult to.maTte these field.experiments spectacularly interesting; tho scientific interest will grow as the farmers grow in knowledge. ' ,'".' ■■/-[' '■'■ '■.■'.' '■„■' AH these developments — mostly ' duced in the last few years—are tending 1 to bring the farmers into closer touch, and produce' a higher: intelligence. > What the school gardens;rand desk lessons, tho milk-testing 'competitions; and the wool-sorting classes are doing for the rising youths at the schools, the cow-testing movement; the field experiments, ;the numerous conferences, the! spirit of travel, and tho 1 great co-operative system i will do for tho grown-up men. ..-.-•'