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Evening Star, Issue 16822, 26 August 1918, Page 4

The meeting that was held last week under the auspices of the

Slipping Backwards.

Otago Expansion League, whereat the decrease in Otago's productivity was

brought under notice and discussed, admirably demonstrated tho value of the league's existence. It furthermore made clear that in Mr E. J. Healey the Otago Education Board have an agricultural instructor of special value. He has not only mastered tho subject belonging to his vocation, but is capable of stating it with clearness and emphasis. His indictment against incompetent fanners was backed up by statistics that do not admit of dispute if taken in tho bulk, and will not be called in question by those who have a moderately familiar acquaintance with rural affairs. Mr Healey will have rendered Otago invaluable service if his criticisms are taken to heart and the cultivators of the soil resolve to mend their ways forthwith. To many it will com« a-s a great surprise to learn that the Nemesis of slovenly and wasteful farming has overtaken our fair province so soon in its history. That disaster ha* been so long delayed bears testimony to the goodly heritage of virgin soil that has come into our possession. Our farmers ought to have known better than to abuse the kindly earth and our favorable cllmato by the misuse of the soil in what we have so often been pleased to call "God's own country." The exercise of a little intelligence would 'have saved them from committing the fatal blunder of over-cropping, neglecting to follow a proper system of rotation of crops, and failing to return to the soil in the form of manure aji equivalent to the produco removed from it. Tho history of agriculture is full of ''shocking J examples" of countries and districts j ruined by the ignorance or greed of these j so-called cultivators of the soil. If tho | true benefuctor of his country is the man who makes two blades of grass grow where only one grew before, what shall be said of him who, by his abuse of Mother Earth, brings abor.t a degreo of barrenness that prevents oven one blade to flourish ! A very striking instance of the devastation brought about by bad farming is to be seen in the districts nearest to Adelaide, where, in tho early golddigging days, when wheat and flour were largely imported from California, South Australian farmers continuously cropped their land with wheat. A local invention, failed a " stripper,' - took off the ears of com and left the straw standing. The former were passed through a, winnower, and tho latter was burnt on the ground. In a very few years these cornfields were exhausted, homesteads wore tenantless, schoolhouses had no scholars, and sheep were cropping tho scanty herbage where once were fertile plains and thriving townships. No land, however naturally fertile, is like tho widow's cruse of oil in the Biblical legend. The laws of cause and effect are inviolable all the world over, as Otago farmers will learn to their sorrow ;md impoverishment unless they profit by the experience of others, and are benefited by the teaching of Mr Healey and fellow-experts in the art of husbandry.

It must not be overlooked, in connection with this abuse of our landed estate, that bad farming not only impoverishes | the farmer himself, but also creates a food j shortage that, at the present time parti- ] cularly. contributes towards a, national calamity. We are laced with a Public Debt of we do not yet know how many millions, and can only meet our financial 'obligations honorably by greatly increasing our staple exports. If the farmers in Otago are. as a class, as delinquent as Mr Hoaley's figures indicate, they are not only fools to themselves, but are false to their country. They will not be slow to realise this patriotic aspect of the question if they will remember that the Mother Country and her soldiers are largely dependent upon produce forwarded from the Antipodes. The matter of food supply is now so vitally important that questions were recently asked in the House of Commons regarding the clearance of sheep stocks from some farms in the Western Highlands of Scotland and deer being allowed to roplace them. A democratic I howl, of course, arose over the displacement, but inquiry disclosed the somewhat unexpected fact that sheep had been kept on these Western Highlands for a century and a-half uninterruptedly. Experts calculated that from a farm sending a thousand sheep to market each year about a ton of lime, with a slightly smaller quantity of phosphoric acid, is taken off the ground annually. No attempt had been made to compensate the soil for the drain upon its resources. As the pastures deteriorated the sheep became unhealthy and feeble. The heather and the finer grasses disappeared, bracken and coarse, sour grasses taking their places. Agriculturists know that rotation of crops, fallowing, and manuring are necessary to maintain the fertility of the soil j but Scotch pastoralists were slow in perceiving that the same principle applies to the production of beef, mutton, and wool. Mr Healey recommends small holdings and intensive cultivation as a preventive of bad farming, and gives good reasons for the faith that is in him. That is one of tho panaceas that our American Ally favors for ap-plicafciori in the New Hampshire State, where there are many derelict farms that afford a close parallel to the abandoned Highland sheep runs. The Americans call this continuous cropping without any attempt to maintain fertility '' soil butchery"—a forceful if not a pleasant term.

Mr Healey is evidently not very much impressed with the work that is being undertaken, and accomplished by the Department of Agriculture; ( but it is only fair to that branch of the Public Service to remember how the ranks of its officers have been much depleted by the war. In its last annual report the Minister of

Agriculture (Mr W. D. S. Mac Donald) points out that, notwithstanding drawbacks, tho movement for the promotion of scientific agriculture—practically "bettor farming "—in tho Dominion has been definitely advanced during the past year through" tho medium of the Fields Division, in conjunction with the biological section of the department. To this end efforts aro being made to bring about coordination and Bystematisation in connection with agricultural research and experimental work throughout the country. The central development farm at Weraroa is described not as an agricultural collego for tho training of young farmers, but as a place -where successive bodies of young men will be trained on practical lines to give thom the necessary knowledge for tiie work of the fields instruction and inspection staff. The report states further that there is a. probability of the fin© establishment at Rnakura being used largely for the training of returned soldiers, and, later on, for training teachers and others in connection with the education authorities. Otago will in a measure participate in these promised educational advantages by the possession of about 30 acres of land at Gore, which may appropriately be described as a very useful approach to an experimental farm proper, where local demonstrations can be given of farm work. The possibilities of expansion in directions pertaining to rural industries are so enormous in our favored Dominion that every step taken to bring us nearer agricultural perfection deserves the warmest approbation of the whole community.