A FARM COMPETITION.

Marlborough Express, Volume XL, Issue 6, 8 January 1907, Page 4

A FARM COMPETITION.

The first of a most interesting series of farm competitions has just been decided in New South Wales. Some time ago the proprietors of the Sydney Morning Herald, moved apparently by a patriotic desire to prove that the New South Wales farmer does not necessarily confine himself to growing sheep, offered five sets of prizes for the three best farms in five divisions of the State, the prizes being £50, £10 and £5. "

A committee of management was set up to organise and carry out the competitions, and practical experts were appointed to act as judges. In the case of the competition in the "Southern tableland division ,the result of which, has just been made known, the three judges divided the district into three sections, and one judge, accompanied by a steward, inspected each farm in his allotted district that was entered for competition, finally selecting four together then made a careful and minute inspection of the twelve farms thus selected out of the ninetysix competitors.

The test was a severe one, points being awarded for general management, fencing and gates ,water supply, dwelling and steading, including garden, orchard and stock yards; live stock breeds, and suitability to district ; cultivation—crops, provision tor storing, supplying fodder; plantincluding all implements, machines and means for carrying produce to market; and situation and general plan of improvements. The maximum niimber of points in each case was one hundred, or 800 in all, and the winning farm, owned and worked by two brothers at Cowra, scored 704 points'. The farm consists of 320~ acres ,and was bought in an almost unimproved condition for £4 an acre some twelve or thirteen years ago by the present owners, who came from 'Victoria seeking land. There were many local predictions that the venture would be a failure, but the brothers evidently knew what they were doing, and for years the annual net return from the farm is said to have been surprisingly large. The committee of management were especially desirous that the prizes should not be won by "show" places, run for the owner's pleasure, but by farmers who were working their land at a profit. The judges made enquiries ,on this point in each case, and were gratified to find that the greater number of the farms entered for competition "were typical of thousands which are carrying farmers and their families in comfortable and steadily improving circumstances.

The judges themselves, were astonished at the evidence afforded them of the solid character of the" farming industry in New South Wales. The ram-, shackle makeshifts which characterise the farms worked by Steele Rudd's creations, and other farms to be met with in Australian fiction, are evidently not the rule. "We visited," say the judges, "scores of well and tastefully improved holdings. houses are well built and comfortable, the steading in many cases ample, and the plant up-todate and in good order. JChe farmers and their families are intelligent, alert, and industrious, and the home life is, as a rule, made attractive for the young people. . . We were much interested in the many small labour-saving devices and economical methods shown by the best farmers, who had profited vastly by their reading and experience, and by keeping vigilant eyes on the operations of their neighbours." And they again emphasise the point that the best farmers in the competition were really typical of the. general average of farmers in the division.

The value of the competitions is undoubted, for, besides encouraging improved farm practice, they must open the eyes of many to the possibilities of agriculture in New- South Wales, and thus promote the closer settlement which is the aim of every Australian Government. There should be room in New Zealand for similar competitions. ■ f ' ' .