FARMING OF THE FUTURE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13745, 9 May 1908, Page 1 (Supplement)

FARMING OF THE FUTURE.

BY TOHPNGA. Tijk future growth of the modern City is always being spoken of, written of, speculated upon, but what of the future of the Farm, the effect, of the modern City upon the development of country life? For it stands to reasondoesn't it ?—that country life is being slowly moulded, into somethin, different to what has been, by the gradual gathering into the cities of the bulk of the population of the civilised, world. " In the old time, the country district was largely self-sustaining and self-con-tained. Every village had its smithy and its wheelwright, its bootmaker and its miller, its tailor and its baker, its brewer and its cooper. Country towns, a few* miles apart, grew from village rank by virtue of their market-place, to which buyers and sellers flocked on market-dav; and in them appeared shops and such industries as tanning, weaving, metal-work-,ing< according to the character of the district. The .'great comparatively greatwere the ports or the capitals, the gates of foreign trade or the seats of palaces and law-courts. Everything was limited by transit difficulties. 1' or before the macadamised road and the railway it cost more to haul a ton a mile than it does now to haul a ton from one side of a country to another —counting cost by the only true standard, that of labour's earning' power. Country life was not an isolated life in the old days, when every rood of earth maintained its man." There were isolated holdings, of course, but the vast majority lay near one of the villages that dotted the country, as closely as plums dot a prosperous, pudding. The country parson and the country squire, the country lawyer and the country doctor, the yeoman farmer and the tenant farmer, the village-craftsmen and the farm labourers each and all rubbed shoulders daily with men of their own class. It was only when machinery came in, and when science was applied to industry and when transit difficulties were conquered that the City as we know it arose. And with the gradual rise of the City the old pleasant, sociable, easy-going neighbourly, self,satisfied life of the Country became sick unto death. For what is there for country towns to grow upon nowadays? The repairer of iron, wood, or leather; the slioer of horses, the cobbler of boots, the mender of broken shafts and axles, the patcher-up of broken-down motor-cars, lie is wanted, of course, close at hand. The general store is wanted in the. country; and the school, the church, and the post and telegraph office 1 ; and there must be somebody to sell bread and meat, though it isn't necessary upon railway lines that there should be anybody to bake or to slaughter. But, allowing for all this and for plumbers and tailors and dressmakers and _ such-like specialists in the country-towns, it'is obvious that upon all the main lines of human requirement the great cities control the future. Factory boots and factory clothing and factory furniture and factory vehicles and factory sweeties and factory dresses and factory hats and factory win 7 dows and factory horse-shoes and factory I parts for factory machines —what room do they leavt for country industries? You eat in Auckland farm-houses, today, on farms that raise pigs, factorycured hams sent by rail from Auckland City, just as on Canterbury wheat-farms you eat bread made with factory flour ground in Christchurch, and just as on a sheep-station you may see factory cloth that came by way of Bradford from .wool 1 grown on the place. Wherein, you have a bird's-eye view, of the process that is I going on, art epitome of the economical development. of City and - Country. For the time is.,, coming, and already, is upon us, when nothing whatever will be done outside the City which can be done inside the City, when mankind will regard the Country as nothing more than ' the source of its raw food and raw materials, and will carry 011 all secondary industrial operations where they can be most economically carried on, which is in great industrial centres. As machinery develops, and is applied,.to agriculture, a less and less proportion of any civilised population will necessarily live in. the Country. When Auckland Province contains a million people, half of them may live in Auckland City; but when the province contains two millions, two thirds of them may be in Auckland City. Even the cobbling of boots may be done, through the post, at a City factory. Even the family washing may be done, monthly, in great electric laundries to which careful Country housewives send a special railway rates extracted from some tottering Government by the women's vote. And therein we have a hint of the bright lining to the seemingly dark cloud* that overshadows Country prospects, in the fact that sooner or later great inducements will have to be given to the agriculturists to keep them on the land. At present, the hold of the Country upon the agriculturist is 'through that land-hunger which •gnaws so steadily at the heart of many men. For once to have land meant to have open to one all the possibilities of human life, while to be landless meant to be a. -waif upon the earth, a vagrant who sought by the wayside for a meal. Whereas, it is to the city-dweller,, who never sees wheat grow or cows milked or sheep shorn, that civilisation-is opening wide the gates of opportunity. In the cities, arise churches with trained choirs and thousand-pound preachers, theatres for the Julius Knights and opera houses for the Melbas and concert halls for the Butts, racecourses for the great steeplechasers and libraries for students, and warm swimming baths for wintry nights, gigantic stores to tempt shoppers and asphalted streets to prevent the muddying of dresses, and parks to show to townsfolk an idealised countryside. Everything that human desire can long for will be some day in the cities, .with high wages for everybody and no dull timesfor when times get-dull the paternal Government may run paper money from its printing presses, and we shall all have as much as we can carry about. And how about- the Country then? Does anybody suppose that a' million country people will be foolish enough to toil amid the mud-roads of the North and hills of the King Country just to.find food for two or three millions who are enjoying themselves under the glass-roofed streets of some future Auckland City? The. turn of the.Country will .come soon, and all the sooner for the massing of population into the City. It will come in the shape of steady pressure upon the food supply and pressure upon Government and pressure upon Parliament. The Country is thought little of by the townsmen while food is cheap, as compared to. earning, power, and while .foreign sources of food appear illimitable. But as the Cities "row every country will want all the food ft grows and as much more as it can get, and the Farmer will be implored to get to work, and when farming isn't rushed the inducements to farm will go up beyond all expectations. Railways will run through every district and light lines, electrically worked, be seen on every important coun--1 trv road. Schooling will be adapted to country conditions, and season tickets on provincial tramways and railways will be issued to bona fide farmers at £1 per annum. Tliev will get telephones in their houses for "sixpence a month, and have their doctors subsidised until medical attendance is as good as in towns, and have free book-boxes sent weekly from the • Citv library and have special trains run to suit them whenever they want to go anywhere. Their roads will be made lit . to-walk on as. well as to drive on, and ■ there will be. electric lights in every farm- • house and free railway carriage for the family washing as mentioned. And if that ■ isn't enough, then a bfass band will play weekly to cverv farmer and a cabinet ' minister come to have tea and ask him if I lie is quito comfortable every month. J?or - the City, glow it ever so hugely, must ; still have food or die; and the armor is the only man who will ' count for very much when the City feels hungrj.