EFFICIENT FARMING.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXX, Issue 4845, 14 May 1936, Page 3

EFFICIENT FARMING.

CONTRASTS AND SIMILARITIES. NEW ZEALAND AND ENGLAND. London, Agril 8. Full of energy and vigour, Lord Bledisloe continues to be much in the limelight in London, and at the same time he keeps New Zealand in the public eye. Before the Chartered Surveyors' Institution this week he delivered an address on "A Farmer's Paradise." Probably no country in the world, he said, could as truly be so described. The land area of New Zealand is 103,298 square miles—compared with 89,643 square miles in Great Britain. The areas of grassland were almost identical, 16,700,000 acres. Of farms in New Zealand 48 per cent, were under 100 acres, compared with 79 per cent, in Great Britain. It was of first-rate importance that New Zealand should wlecome increasing numbers of British settlers. The present meagre population of 1,500,000 was not being materially increased by new arrivals, yet New Zealand could well support 15,000,000 people. The need for an increased population was urgent because certain nations were looking enviously to underpopulated parts of the Empire to which they could send their human surplusage. The powers of increas-

ing agricultural production in New Zealand were immeasurable, and her products were of high quality and nutritive value. Reception of New Ideas. New Zealand farmers as a class differed in some respects from the farmers in the Mother Country, he said. Thanks to the Dominion's higher average of education and to the fact that its producers were not handicapped by the traditions and more static practice of an old country, they were more alert-minded, far more receptive of new ideas, and more prepared to put to the test the teachings of modern science than were their brethren in Great Britain. This was particularly noticeable in the case of pasture land, the herbage of which and its management were without doubt the best in the world. New Zealand farmers were mostly eager to put to the test the teachings of modern science. Electricity was cheap, and facilitated the use of lab-our-saving machinery. The small amount of labour involved and the organisation of sheep shearing resulted in the production of wool much more cheaply in New Zealand than in Great Britain. Efficient specialised farm workers were common. Most New Zealand farmers owned their holdings, and the Government made generous advances on mortgage to efficient farmers. Except wool, almost all the produce of New Zealand was consumed in Great Britain. Dairying Enterprise. Lord Bledisloe said New Zealand dairying was a very young industry which only began in the present century, and had expanded with amazing rapidity, during the last 20 years. In dairying. Great Britain compared very unfavourably with New Zealand. Although the price of good dairying land was relatively high—even to-day much of it was selling at from £SO to £6O per acre in the most favoured districts its carrying capacity, coupled in many cases with excellent management, made it possible for the New Zealand dairy farmer to produce butter, cheese, and pig meat at a price with which no other country in the world could compete. In marketing, the dairy industry was well organised by comparison with that of England. There were over 500 dairy factories most of which were co-operative. The factories helped the farmers considerably with finance and in the purchase of fertilisers and dairy appliances, as well as by marketing all their produce. Whereas the British farmer's success depended very largely on his ability to sell his produce, the New Zealand farmer had nothing whatever to do with this side of the business. It was done for him. Pig breeding was steadily improving. New Zealand wheat crops two years ago averaged 36 bushels an acre, and 60 to 70 bushel crops were frequent. Roots, though none too clean, were heavier cropping than in England, and 150 tons of mangels on an acre had been recorded on a Taranaki farm. All English fruit flourished in New Zealand as well as the citru? varieties. English grasses and clovers throve there, and the best pastures of ryegrass with white clover would put the average English pastures — seriously adulterated as they were with worthless weeds—very much to shame. Room for Wore Settlers. Lord Bledisloe concluded by asking why, in a country larger than Great Britain and so exceptionally favoured by Nature, there should be a meagre population of no more than 1,500,000, which is not being materially increased by immigration. Great Britain, after short-sightedly starving her agriculture for three-quarters of a century, was inclined to-day to subsidise generously her own agricultural production. Care must be taken lest such a policy, unless most carefully planned and its possible repercussions fully weighed, defeat its own ends and incidentally depress the average standard of farming, and thus enable many inefficient men to stay on the land who in the interests of the country would be better off it. Times Are Changing. The Times comments, in a leading article: "As a nation we are now making amends for past neglect, but it is not surprising that Lord Bledisloe, after his experiences in New Zealand, finds our farmers less receptive of new ideas and less prepared to put to the test the teachings of science. They are hindered by the traditions and more static practices of an old country. But times are changing, and Lord Bledisloe, if he goes about agricultural England to-day, will find

many farmers who are just as enterprising and as efficient as their fellows in New Zealand. Agriculture indeed attracts, more than before, keen minds and business heads, ready to try new ways; and, even if the majority of smaller farmers are conservative, their ways have at least the merit of proved worth through times of depression. The younger generation, many of whom are farmers' sons with the advantage of having been trained at an agricultural college, are setting out on a farming career well equipped to turn to good use on their farms the lessons of the laboratory and the trial grond. If agriculture is allowed its due status among the national industries, there need be no fear about the capabilities and efficiency of those who cultivate the land."