The Evening Star TUESDAY, JANUARY 6, 1925. INCREASING OUR EXPORTS.

Evening Star, Issue 18833, 6 January 1925, Page 4

The Evening Star TUESDAY, JANUARY 6, 1925. INCREASING OUR EXPORTS.

lx is but a truism to say that the continued prosperity of our dominion depends upon increased production from our main industry—agriculture. Increased production, in these days of dearer land and sometimes exhausted soil, means more intensive methods of cultivation. More intensive cultivation, again, means the adoption of up-10-dato and scientific methods. There is no occupation more dependent upon science than farming. Tho natural sciences—botany, chemistry, physics, biology —touch upon farm practice at so many points that anyone who understands the practical work of a farmer can learn much from these sciences. No doubt there have been in the past successful farmers who have known little of science. And a man who knows much about tho theory of agriculture may be a failure as a practical farmer. Farming is now no longer simply sowing and reaping and selling. The principles underlying agricultural practice are coming to bo better known, and farming is becoming constantly more difficult. With dearer land things must be done with a view not only to economic production, but also to sustaining fertility, to the end that the producing power of land shall not grow less, and that wo shall not one day find ourselves in the condition of modern Russiaon the verge of starvation, though inhabiting the best lands on earth. And so under present conditions the successful farmer is the man who, in addition to having practical experience as a basis, can also call in the aid of science and of methods already tested by others. Thus ho produces more cheaply because he is saved from making costly mistakes.

There is much wisdom in the Danish method of agricultural education. After a youth has completed his primary school course at fourteen years ho spends, say, four years on the farm. At tiro age of eighteen ho returns to an agricultural high school, and takes a further course. He can now fully appreciate the value of science, and it is much more interesting to him because, it supplements his practical knowledge. It seems to us that this is where the value of our farm schools comes in. They are attended mainly by those actually occupied in farm operations, who thus are ready to profit by the knowledge of specialists in various sciences. It has been said that progress depends upon the rate at which a nation adopts into actual practice the principles and discoveries of science. It should he noted, too, that discoveries and inventions are increasing at a faster rate than formerly, and that the countries whose agriculture has made the greatest advances are those which pay most attention to agricultural science and research. In Denmark, where agricultural education and co-operation have been greatly developed during the last thirty years, the yield per acre of wheat has increased 7£ per cent, during the last twenty years, whereas in England it has only increased per cent. We have not vet adopted agricultural co-operation for the small fanner nearly to the same extent as Denmark. Their co-operative system has been developed so that every product of the farm, even down to eggs, is collected, graded, packed, shipped, marketed, or delivered to the consumer -nder a co-operative system, which, while guaranteeing the quality, eliminated {JI middle profits and ensured to the producer the full price paid by the consumer, less orly the actual costs of handling. These costs are reduced to a minimum by their elaborate interwoven system, which embraces supplies of all sorts, including stores, manures, implements —in fact, to every requirement of their business. Although we began by discussing how to increase our exports, we cannot help asking the question : Why should not the life of a fanner be considered as honorable as any other profession or vocation? The farmer can boast that his occupation is both ancient and useful. It is the only profession in existence without which all others must come to a standstill. The man behind the plough is the man t 1 at feeds the world. And so we must agree with Theodore Roosevelt when he says: “The calling of the skilled tiller of the soil, the vocation of the skilled mechanic, should alike be recognised as professions just as emphatically as those of the lawyer, doctor, banker, or merchant. They should be trained alike in head and in hand.” Again, O. J. Kem, an American writer, reminds us: “The aim of agricultural education is not merely to train skilful farmers. The farmer’s boys and girls should learn to appreciate and love the country. The knowledge of soil and atmosphere, of plant and animal - life that makes him an intelligent producer puts him in sympathetic touch with these activities of Nature. If the fanner, as he trudges down the com rows under *hc June sun, sees only clods and weeds and com, he leads an empty and a barren life. But if he knows of the work of the moisture in air and soil, of the use of air to root and leaf, of the mysterious chemistry of the sunbeam, of the vital forces in the growing plant; if he sees all the relation of all these natural forces to his own work; if he can follow his crop to the market, to foreign lands, to the mill, to the table; if he knows of the hundreds of commercial products obtained from his corn, he then realises that he is no mere toiler —he is marshalling the hosts of the universe, and upon the skill of his generalahifi