THE ROYAL SHOW.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19470, 28 October 1926, Page 14

THE ROYAL SHOW.

VALUE TO THE DISTRICT. STIMULATING AGRICULTURE. IMPROVEMENTS IN STOCK. Undoubtedly tho main direction in which an agricultural and pastoral show can prove of value to a district is in its influence a3 an educational medium for the farmer and his sons. Unfortunately it has been accepted for man\ generations that farming is an occupation where brawn is an essential and brains a superfluity. This may have applied in the older countries a hundred or two years ago, when precedent was the bugbear which guided and hampered the tiller of the soil and the grazier of stock, and the producers' brains may have grown to lack that quickness of action and perception which is noticeable in the commercial man where brain must be ever alert if he is to successfully forestall his competitors. To-day, when science is linked with production and new methods and theories are thte order of the day, the farmer must learn to assimilate, judge and adopt or reject fresh ideas with promptitude if he hopes to keep abreast of the times. Long hours of solid manual labour in the open air are not conducive to mental alertness in the evenings, yet not harassed by the petty irritations which distract the average commercial man, the farmer should be able to, and can if he wishes, concentrate on the problems which, if correctly solved, would double his returns. Men, headed by Bakewell, have wrought wonders in improving tho productivity of the domesticated animals. Their disciples, fortunately, ara with us to-day, and it is the result of their thinking that we go to inspect at the showgrounds where are marshalled tho cattle, mountains of beef; the phenomenal sheep, perfect in fleece and frame, or the gentle dairy cow, which yields her 10001b. of butter-fat in the year. The Path To Success. The farmer has waited through tho centuries for the man of science to show him the path to success. Now the road is mapped, with signposts to warn the traveller of dangerous by-ways, and practical men have trodden the road leading to sure success, yet there are those who refuse to see the way, who talk of success as luck, who reckon the old way good enough for them. Theso fnen are hard to teach, harder than if they were children with receptive minds, but like children they must bt; shown the model and told to work toward that ideal. The early attempts to attain the ideal, we will suppose in the direction of breeding live stock, will be far from perfect, but if interest is once aroused tho march will be always forward, for the ideal will be raised year by year. No man' has yet bred the perfect beast, be it horse, cow or sheep. He may have far surpassed his original ideal, but is still as far from his goal. In this the interest lies. The breeder of livestock always sees faults to correct, good qualities to improve. To the farmer without a favourite breed, the display of livestock at a show presents merely a confusing display of good qualities portrayed in many breeds, bnt to the man who makes his stock his hobby, every sheep of his fancied breed has something to tell him as he leans over his show pen. In those long rows of ticketed exhibits he will, may be, find the sheep or cattle beast of his dreams and then the puzzle presents itself—how was the stock bred ? The Short or Long Eoad. Some, perhaps, will grasp at what they consider the short road to success by buying sires from the breeder of the " perfect " beast. It may prove the short road, or again it may be a long and disappointing way, and it will most certainly prove an expensive road, for the farmer must pay for the time and brains of the breeder. Still, one must start with good blood and the good blood will pay for itself a hundredfold, but before the farmer spends his good money on these sires that are to do so much for him, he should study the principles that underlie the reproduction by stock of animals similar tq themselves. He will find that the all-important consideration is strain, that like produces like, and that to get the anticipated results from a sire he must be like his sire and dam as they must be like theirs, and thus back through many generations, the more the better. Freak animals there are and have been, the progeny of indifferent parents, which havo been acclaimed perfect specimens of their bread, and awarded positions in the prize ring above competitiors of undoubted lineage, but these a/re the exceptions that prove the rule that " like produces like " for in their sons and daughters is seen the reversion to inferior types which constituted the ancestry of the " freak." These "are the animals one must guard against introducing to tho stud if uniformity—tho ambition of every breeder —is to be realised. Even more in crossbred than in purebred or " established " breeds, this tendency to reversion to former types must be guarded against bj insisting on a long pedigree with uniformity. From crossing established breeds, some of our finest and most profitable animals have been evolved and boundless scope still awaits the adventurer in this absorbing field of crossbreeding for new types, but it is not until at least 20 generations of the cross has line-bred true to type that any permanency can bo guaranteed as established. Pioneers of New Breects. In New Zealand to-day we need " inventors," pioneers of new breeds suitable to our particular climate and pastoral conditions. A worthy exampio has been set by the New Zealand inventors of tho now world-renowned Corriedales, but snrelv cur ambition will refuse to be satisfied with one breed of sheep, when other sheep, cattle,' horses and pigs await the magic development that, follows reasoned mating bv a. competent breeder. "Bakewell it was who, by his genius as a breeder and improver of stock, made possible our pastoral shows of to-day, for he blazed the track that others now follow, bnt he was never content with improving one animal, and his first success, the Leicester, was followed by similar improvements in Shorthorn cattle and many breeds of sheep. Great breeders, or inventors of new varieties of animal and plant life, like Robert Bakewell or Luther Burbank, may be geniuses whom we cannot hope to rival, but when you walk besido the long rows of pens at*the forthcoming show and see the almost perfect animals man has evolved from the unpromising original material, give credit to the men who have expended thought, and time and have experienced many disappointments that their favourite breed might be improved. Then,, even if in a small way, join the band of " thinking " farmers, be you agriculturalist, or stockman, and make it yonr goal that everything you cultivate or breed shall bo improved at your bands. There is no " get-rich-quick " road in farming, but so surely ns the farmer makes better stock, better grain • and !letter pasture his ideal, and not merely the acquisition of wealth, so surely will steady prosperity follow him and not only him, but tho whole community of New Zealand. This Royal Show can moan so much or bo little to farrnora---a wouderfnl educa. tion or-—a dav'fl ?