FARMING CLUBS

Evening Post, Volume XCVIII, Issue 33, 8 August 1919, Page 2

FARMING CLUBS

AGRICULTURE FOR THE BOYS.

Hearty approval is given by the Minister of Lands (Hon. D. H. Guthrie) to the suggestion that an agricultural competition for boys and girls should be organised on national lines. The Minister commends the work of the Otago Expansion League in this' direction. The effort to stimulate - the intensive cultivation of the soil i 3 deserving of the high-, ret commendation, he considers, especially as it starts with the youthful section of our citizens, who eventually will become the occupiers and workers of the soil. The scheme, as long as it proceeds on sensible business lines, should receive every support, locally and nationally. It is based on. the system of boys' agricultural clubs, established in some of the American States, where the effect of the competitions on agriculture in general has far exceeded the most sanguine expectations of those engaged in the psppaganda work. •

"The competitions that are suggested appear to me to lie really a matter for the Education Department (states Mr. Guthrie), associated, where possible, with the Departments of Lands and Agriculture. If these three Departments, working in' earnest co-operation, would apply their influence to secure agricultural development and intensive production, they would be well repaid by the betterment of New Zealand as a whole. Indeed, it is surprising that not until now have some portions of the Dominion begun to wake up to the absolute necessity of attention being paid to these vital factors in national prosperity. In some districts, notably the "vVanganui Education District, agricultural education has received attention for the past ten or fifteen years, with ■the result that-to-day the agricultm-al instructors are recognised as experts, and are constantly being approached for advice even by farmers who formerly had no time at all for 'new-fangled ideas.' "It must be recognised that the proposal to inaugurate agricultural competitions for young people, on the lines advocated by the Otago Expansion League, is only one of the levers that may be used to procure better and' more productive farming in any It is a method of getting scientific knowledge into the minds of" the farmers of the future, and of providing the farmers of to-day with practical demonstrations of the means by which their land can be made to yield greatly increased returns. The scheme is well worthy of the fullest consideration and support."