INTENSIVE CULTIVATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17234, 9 August 1919, Page 8

INTENSIVE CULTIVATION .

CHILDREN'S COMPETITIONS, £ SUPPORT FROM THE MINISTER. : [BY TELEGKAPH. i")WN COBaESPONDENT.] "; C "WELLINGTON", Friday. (? Hearty approval is given by the Hon. ';- D. H. Guthrie to the suggestion that an '■■$ agricultural competition for boys and ' v girls should be organised on national lines. "The effort to stimulate inten- _ sive cultivation of the soil is deserving ■ of the highest commendation," he said, ' ~ " especially as it starts with the youthful ' section who eventually will become occupiers and workers of the soil. The ",'_, scheme, as long as it proceeds on sensible,' business lines, should receive every support locally and nationally. .It is based on the system of boys' agricultural clubs established in some of the American States, where the effect of competitions en agriculture in general has far exceeded the most sanguine expectations of those engaged in propaganda work. ' The competitions that are suggested appear to me to be really a matter *or the Education Department, associated when possible, with the Departments of Lands tuid Agriculture. If these three Departments, working in earnest co-opera-tion, would apply their influence to secure agricultural development and intensive production they would be well repaid by the betterment of New Zealand as a whole.

" Indeed, it is surprising that nob until now have some portions >f the Dominion begun to wake up to the necessity of attention being paid to thtse vital factors in the national prosperity. In some districts, notably the Wanganni Education District, agricultural education has received attention for the past 10 or 15 years, with the result that to-day agricultural instructors are recognised as experts, and are constantly being spproached for advice, even by farmers who formerly had no time at all for ' newfangled ideas.' It must be recognised that the proposal to inaugurate agricultural competitions for young people on the lines advocated by the Otago Expansion League is only one of the lovers that may be used to procure better and more productive farming in any locality. It is a method of getting scientific knowledge into the minds of the farmer of the future, and of providing the farmers of to-day with practical demonstrations of means by which their land can be made to yield greatly increased returns."