FARMERS’ SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVIII, Issue 139, 26 May 1928, Page 12

FARMERS’ SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE

PRESENTED IN POPULAR FORM PRESS ACKNOWLEDGED AS BEST MEDIUM “Need of Publicity.—lf the farmers present at the weekly market were cross-examined with a view to ascertaining from what source, if any, they derived something like scientific knowledge to apply to the working of their farms, one would probably arrive at the conclusion that the principal source is to be found in the pages of the ‘Farmer and Stockbreeder.’ And, admitting the excellence of what may be described as its instructional articles, one is led to inquire why a 2d newspaper should succeed in gaining the attention of the farmers when the publications of the Ministry or of agricultural institutes have so frequently failed. Perhaps the explanation may be found in the difference of the methods adopted in each case. The newspaper recognizes the necessity of appealing to tl(| popular taste. If a cause is to gain popular support it must be popularised in a particular way—a plain statement of the merits of the case, or a recital of the facts its not sufficient. The art of advertisement is now a definite subject of study, and perhaps this may provide the proper means of popularizing the results of research work with the farming community. Naturally this task cannot be entrusted to the men of science; their work is done when they have made the results of research intelligible; it is the task of the Government to carry them a stage further and make them popular by presenting them in popular form.“ THE “TRIBUNE'S” WORK. The above quotation from the recent agricultural supplement of the London “Times” is quite as applicable to the farmers of the Dominion as to those of the Old Country, and in the belief that it really may be doing a work of great educational value amongst the farming community by encouraging better and more intelligent methods of farming, the “Hawke’s Bay Tribune” is making a special effort to rapidly reach an ever-widening circle of farmer-readers. Not for One moment do we wish to disparage other journals devoted to the scientific and l practical side of farming. These are doing eexcllent work among their readers, but we believe that the farmer appreciates advice served up in small doses and in such everyday language that he can follow their reasoning without having to consult an encyclopaedia. WIDE RANCE OF INTERESTS. Further, we think that the farmer and his family naturally wish to keep in touch with matters of interest going on in the outside world, and to sandwich these with the more prosaic articles on farm matters is more likely to make the latter widely read and appreciated. The “Tribune” combines all these features and is therefore becoming daily more widely recognised as the “FARMERS’ PAPER." With the best interests of th© farming and producing community at heart, tho Management is undertaking a campaign to ensure that at least the’Wed nesday and Saturday copies of this paper, which are particularly devoted to farming news, reach the home of every farmer throughout Hawke's Bay. / WHERE YOU CAN HELP. If you, reader, have found information of value to you in your work in our farm columns, pass the information on to your neighbour, or, better still, advise us so that we may send him copies from which he may judge for himself. We can maintain Hawke’s Bay as the premier province of New Zealand only il we do our utmost to hglp not alyiy ou.l'selves but also thm>e who aju ouj: co-«_oi'jjgrs, ’ ' .