AID TO FARMING

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23002, 1 April 1938, Page 12

AID TO FARMING

'GRASSLAND BESEAKCH NEW BUILDING OPENED DIRECTOR-GENERAL'S VIEWS M ANIMAL ASPECT" STRESSED [BY TELEGRAPH OWN CORRESPONDENT] PALMERSTON NORTH, Thursday The necessity for the co-ordination of grassland research with animal husbandry was emphasised by Mr. A. H. Cockayne, Director-General of Agriculture, in an address at the opening of tho new building of tho grasslands division of the Plant Research Bureau at Palmerston North this afternoon. Mr. Cockayne, who was tho pioneer of grassland research in New Zealand, and tho director of tho Plant Research Station until it was transferred to the Scientific and Industrial Research Department two years ago, performed tho opening ceremony in tho absence of tho Minister of Scientific und Industrial Research, the Hon. D. G. Sullivan. Remarkable Expansion

"Thirty-four years ago I entered the Department of Agriculture to take charge of the department's biological laboratory," said Mr. Cockayne. " It was housed in a single room 16ft. by 32ft., the salary, of its staff of one was £175 a year, and £IOO a year was allowed for its; maintenance. It has grown into a scientific organisation consisting of five divisions, grasslands, agronomy, botany, plant diseases and entomology, with a staff of 85 and an expenditure of over £33,000 a year." Flesh and Blood of Farming The actual expenditure of the grass- . lands division, whose first permanent house after many vicissitudes they were •opening, amounted to a little over £IO,OOO, and at first sight it might be thought that research in grassland would bo adequately catered for, and •the achievement was one for reasonable pride. Farming; was often termed the backbone of New Zealand. That might or might not be true. " But what I do know," said Mr. Cockayne, " is that grassland is not only tho backbone, but also the flesh and blood of New Zealand farming. It brings into being over £60,000,000 worth of production annually, and completely dominates our international livelihood. Proper Co-ordination " Perhaps the mosit serious aspect so :far as grassland is concerned is the lag that has taken place in the proper coordination of research from the animal aspect as distinct from the pasture aspect. Here I want to say that if we are going to develop full utilisation of our present and future grasslands, itis research into grassland farming in its entirety, where the soil, the plant, the animal and the farmer are all taken into consideration, that must be developed."