SANDON.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 994, 20 March 1891, Page 24

SANDON.

I am glad to notice that a great deal of discussion is going on through the columns of the New ZEALAND Mail, and that considerable interest has already been excited on the subject ot farmers’ clubs. And I firmly believe what you have previously stated that a farmers club or institute in every district by co-opera-tion would work large results most beneficially to farmers. In union there is strength, and centralization is the tendency of the age. Nature has done a great deal for us, but has it not often occurred to ns that something in the way of helping nature in carrying out her plans might be done to advantage. A great deal has been said and written on Institute work, and when we get hold of a writer who gets down to solid facts and gives us something tangible to think about, it has that about it that cannot fail to excite our intorest. The desire for better things manifests itself in a hundred different ways, labour is the nature inheritance of all mankind. Without labour we get nothing, ill very man in every station has need to be industrious. Each and all have some talent that should be cultivated and used for the benefit of mankind. By the industrious work of a single individual others are more or less benefited in diiFerent ways; it fit 3 in somewhere, and to the completion of the work of others. The labours of these individuals combined are the means by which success attends many. Labour is the only real source of production. Those who are not engaged in the work of production are of no real value to the material prosperity of the country. The prosperity of the Colony owes nothing to the indolent, but it is from just such individuals she ha 3 to protect hersef. Farmers should organise at once, and get full control of that which they have for sale, instead of allowing dealers to fix the price for them. They have as muoh right to act in ooneert to secure fair treatment as any other portion of the mercantile community. The prices of farm products, like those of all other commodities, are regulated mainly by the relation which the Bupply bears to the demand. If any article which is in common use, and which has come to be regarded in the light of a necessity, becomes scarce, the price is immediately advanced. It will remain a high figure until the demand is checked or the supply is increased. If, on the other hand, the supply of an article is far in excess of the demand, therefore, prices will inevitably decrease ; they will continue low until the surplus quantity has been disposed of. Admitting that the supply will govern the price it becomes evident at once that some method of regulating the supply so that it will bear a proper proportion to demand is Tery desirable. Manufacturers of goods recognise this fact. At stated periods they hold meetings, and decide how extensive the productions of their class of goods shall be during the season. They know if the market ’8 flooded the goods mast be sacrificed, and they very wisely prefer to curtail production rather than allow prices to go below a paying figure. By mutual concessions they avoid the evils of unrestricted competition. Some think there is nothing to hinder farmers from entering into and carrying out such an r-rrangemont if they had adequate organisations, and some method of making an agreement which would be accepted and respected by the masses. There i 3 no successful business accomplished without striving for improvement, hut an improvement of this kind is out of the question. The farmer has too many risks to contend with. There are important lines connecting the farmer that demand serious attention, and in which improvement has not been apparent. If cooperative associations were adopted improved methods of culture in their social intercourse would be brought forward, and such questions ■would be considered. What can. be done to improve the soil ? How can the yields of crops be increased ? Are the present methods adequate, or is there a consciousness that improvement is needed in this line ? That spirit which never tires of reaching out for better things will find here a large field for work. Close observation, together with experience are needed, for improvement both discovers the thing that needs attention and the manner, of procedure. There can be but slight improvement by many until they begin to think, how that the soil being a large reservoir for plant food can be best stored with those elements that enter into the composition of their crops, and what conditions are mo3t favourable to the restoration or maintenance of their fertility. Their discussions should be spirited and on a plane of thoughtful intelligence, and would exhibit a spirit of true progressiveness. No great advances in economic agriculture had been made until a few years ago, and tbe middleaged farmer as an aggregate cannot be expected to adopt new principles of soil culture with the alacrity .of the rising generation. I do not wish to construe this as an aspersion on the perceptive faculties of the older farmers of the community. I honour and respect the men who have borne thrice the hardships and adversity this younger generation will ever be called upon to bear, and whose experience has been wrought in the school of the severest manual labour. I know many of them who regard as new fangled scientific innovations of the art of agriculture. They take this deprecatory view without the trouble of investigation, and condemn new processes because they conflict with usages immemorially practised by themselves. Many farmers find that their products are costing them too much, frequently more than they have to sell, and they are, I am glad to see, beginning to Btudy how to reduce the cost. One very good way to reduce the cost would he to produce move on a given area of land. Three-fourths of our farmers are cultivating twice as much land as they should to produce the crops they grow. It costs a great deal more to plough and cultivate two acres than it does one, a great deal more to harvest the crops besides paying interest on twice as much land a 3 be should. The whole subject of unproductive labour could be dealt with by Farmers’ Associations, and is worthy of careful thought and study, not only in its direct bearings but also in its various issues it

is of great importance. A saving of labour would be equivalent to a saving of money, and the turning of what lias been non-paying labour into productive channels would bring a great and immediate increase of prosperity. It is not with our hands alone wo must work, but with our brains as well. We should also educate ourselves in the affairs of the Colony as well as in the work our hands are engaged in. Study up all the leading questions of the day, learn what is being done for us by our legislators, and see whether we are represented as largely in the Legislature as we should be. According to the number of farmers in the Colony as opposed to other callings, othors have said said we are not as capable of filling these positions as those whom we send. You have just as much brains, just as much intelligence, aud persoveranoe in improving yourselves you would know much more than some of those men who are in our Parliament, or elso you would know very little.