BETTER FARMING

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 32, 1 November 1929, Page 13

BETTER FARMING

TASMANIAN METHODS LESSONS LEARNT IN NEW ' .ZEALAND Pastures, with clovers, and the density of stock, were the two outstanding features seen by the Tasmanian farmers during their tour of the Dominion. "As a result of the tour, we can look forward to the rate of exchange in Tasmania being speeded up, and a fresh realisation of the possibilities of that State,” said Mr. C. L.. Gillies, of the Tasmanian Department of Agriculture, who acted as agricultural adviser to the party of Tasmanian farmers who have just completed the tour.

Some three years ago, Mr. Gillies explained, an investigation of Tasmania’s economic position was made by a Federal Commission. Their first recommendation was that the primary industries of the State should be placed on a sounder footing. They recommended a loan to Tasmania free of interest to enable the State to put the Federal recommendation into effect. These were, firstly, the development of self-help in the farming community, and the scientific direction of their activities through a reorganised Department of Agriculture. The producers of the State were organised into an agricultural bureau, an organisation of producers to be the medium through which the self-help was to develop. The movement, proceeded Mr. Gillies, had grown extensively in the last three years, and now comprised some 3000 members, whose chief objects were to develop schemes for marketing primary products, chiefly by co-operative means. Tasmanian System. “So far as the Tasmanian Department of Agriculture is concerned,” said Mr. Gillies, “there are seven or eight New Zealanders on the staff, whose experience and training were of advantage in meeting the conditions found in Tasmania. The organisation of the Tasmanian Department of Agriculture differs from that of the other Australian States, ami New Zealand. It consists of an investigatinig and technical service, whose duty it is to examine the facts of the primary industries, and make recommendations for their improvement. The extension or teaching service, consisting of a superintendent and six district agricultural organisers, is responsible for seeing that these recommendations ate got across to the farmer, and that the agricultural community are led to adopt the new and improved practices which are recommended.” The methods employed by this extensive service, explained Mr. Gillies, were based on psychologically sound teaching methods, and the success of the work had shown clearly that the farming community. as any other body, could be led to change their accustomed line of action if the right method of approach was used. In Tasmania there was a very great need for the adoption of known standard and improved practices, and the

problem of improving the primary industries was largely a matter of the success or otherwise of the teaching methods. Impressing the Farmer. “In New Zealand, as in Tasmania.” continued Mr. Gillies, ‘‘the problem is really how to get the. farmer to adopt already known improved practices. The research work, both in Australia and overseas, is considerably* z in advance of the methods employed on the farms. Indications have been given that the next develonment in agricultural improvement will be the more extensive use of efficient teaching methods in agricultural work. The organisation of an extensive service in Tasmania has demonstrated the usefulness and effectiveness of this system in carrying information from the research worker to the farmer. It has been found very necessary to use the specialised teaching officer, as the investigator seldom or ever has the outlook necessary to make him a successful teacher or extension worker.” Developing a Wider Outlook. The organisation of a party of Tasmanian farmers to tour New Zealand, continued Mr. Gillies, was undertaken primarily to develop in the party, who were mostly young farmers, a wider outlook, and show them the possibilities in their own country for development. In general terms, one might describe the system adopted in Tasmania as the cashcropping system, 88 per cent, of crops being sold off the farm altogether. Ini sufficient recovery crops, like clover and other fodders, were grown to keep the land in heart. New Zealand, declared Mr. Gillies, had demonstrated most successfully to the party a system of farming—viz., live-stock farming—which not only kept the land in good heart, but produced commodities for. which there was a good demand in the world’s markets. The party of Tasmanian farmers will leave Auckland by the Ulitnaroa to-day, having spent eighteen days in New Zealand, during which time representative farming districts were visited, as well as some of the Dominion’s scenic resorts.

Mr. Gillies, prior to joining the Tasmanian Agricultural Department three years ago, was agricultural science master at the Timaru High School, He left by the ferry steamer last night in order to enjoy his annual furlough in the South Island prior to leaving the Bluff for Tasmania on November 9.