ESTABLISHED 1866. The Marlborough Express. THURSDAY, AUGUST 12, 1920. THE PROPOSED SEED FARM.

Marlborough Express, Volume LIV, Issue 190, 12 August 1920, Page 4

ESTABLISHED 1866. The Marlborough Express. THURSDAY, AUGUST 12, 1920. THE PROPOSED SEED FARM.

Marlborough is par excellence the seed-growing district of New Zealand, and its reputation in this respect extends to other countries. Its seed peas are exported in large quantities to. England, as well as Australia, and they have been sown in many gardens arid fields on the Continent. Peas are not the only item on the list. For instance, Marlborough lias established in its own name a superior and widely-used variety of lucerne. It is, \ve| consider, a reproach to the Agricultural Department—we do not confine the blame to the present regime—that advantage has not yet been taken of the special climatic and soil characteristics of this province in behalf of the Dominion in the:way of establishing a State seed farm somewhere on the Wairau Plain. One Government after another has neglected a splendid opportunity of serving the cause of agricultural and pastoral production, and contributing to the country's industrial selfreliance. The imports of seeds into New Zealand during 1917 and 1918. represented an outgoing of £560,000, and it may be taken for granted that, given an adequate measure of encouragement on the part of the Agricultural Department and a fair response by landholders, the bulk of these requirements could be provided within our own borders. There is really no necessity to go abroad for such huge supplies for the purposes of our standard crops. In the Financial Statement it is intimated that the Government is considering the advisability of establishing at least one State farm in the South Island. Could it do better than locate such an institution in Marlborough, and in that connection specialise in the seed-raising industry? " The annual grant of £300 offered to the Progress Committee and the farmers' organisations for the maintenance of a seed farm, tho land for which would have to be acquired out of local resources, falls a long way short of doing justice to the national importance of tho project. The Department ought to do a great deal better than that with the proved potentialities of this district for the raising of first-class seeds of all descriptions. It would be doing an excellent thing for the whole Dominion if it accepted the whole of the financial responsibility;

though we say that without suggesting that the local organisations should look even so slight a gift horse as this one in the mouth, and, refrain from going to work to do the best they can with it. Local initiative, as we have repeatedly said, is going to count for much in tho development of the province. While they are thinking out a scheme they should press the Government to give their claims in this matter more generous consideration. It is by no means too much to ask tlie Government if -the land and climatic conditions of Marlborough are not at least equal to those of the Roxburgh district, where the Repatriation Department has acquired 450 acres, and has well under way the establishment of a commercial seed-raising farm, to which great expectations are attached.