EXPERIMENTAL FARMS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13456, 5 June 1907, Page 7

EXPERIMENTAL FARMS.

ONE NEEDED IN SOUTH ISLAND.) MR MILLAR ON THEIR VALUE. [by telegraph.— association.] i " Ditnedin, Tuesday. [ Speaking at the opening of jlhe Winter Show to-day, the Hon. J. A. Millar said the president had mentioned that the Agricultural Department had decided not to establish an experimental farm in the South Island. In his (Mr. Millar's) opinion there must be some misunderstanding on that point. .If he 'knew the mind of his colleague the Minister for Agriculture on the matter, it was that there ought to be greater concentration in the matter of experimental farms, and that they should not be so widely distributed. He had not, however, understood that Mr. Mo Nab was opposed to the establishment of an experimental farm in the South Island, and had so decided. As far as he (Mr. Millar) was concerned he would have something to say on the subject if he ascertained that the president's statement of the position was a correct one. (Applause.) He was fully convinced of the great good that experimental farms were to the community. Such farms were i established in Auckland and Wellington i provinces, and he considered the system should be continued in the South Island. The farmers of New Zealand, not of the North Island only, had to compete in the markets ot the world, and it behoved us to do all that was possible to ensure our products being able to maintain their present high position. The Argentine was I from year to year pushing itself forward, and it. was only now a matter of time when it would be our doughty competitor. He had only that day been informed by a friend that so great was the progress being made in the Argentine, and so great was the effort that was being made to improve the quality of its output, that within a few years that country would send butter to the London market equal in quality to that of New Zealand.