THE PRINCE AS A FARMER.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20060, 29 March 1927, Page 13

THE PRINCE AS A FARMER.

BUSINESS POINT OF VIEW. HOMELY DINNER GATHERING. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, February 11. The Prince of Wales and Prince Henry were the guests at the annual dinner of the Mellon Mowbray and District Branch of the Notional Farmers’ Union. Melton Mowbray is the headquarters of three famous hunts, the Quorn, the Bolvoir. and the Cottesmore, and is, of course, a familiar resort of the Prince of Wales and in a lesser degree of Prince Henry during the hunting season. There was a sense of informality about the dinner. Dress jackets repesented the utmost concession to the conventions, counter balanced by the more homely attire of many of the guests. The menu was roast beef, roast pork, roast mutton, fruit tarts, and Stilton cheese. Instead of professional waiters and waitresses the daughters of local farmers, wearing simple blue drosses, attended to the guests. The Princes sat on each side of the chairman, Mr N. Squire, the chairman of the district branch of the National Farmers’ Union. The Prince of *Wales proposed the toast of the. farmers of .the distric t. “Since I was last here,” he said, “I have acquired a farm in the Midlands. It. is not very largo, hut. it. is big enough to give me a very keen interest in local farming questions. If only by reason of their geographical position, the Midlands arc the hub of Eng Hall farming, and I felt, from a purely business point of view a form in these parts would be a very useful adjunct to my farms in the West of England. SECRET OF GOOD FARMING. “The business point of view is the real secret of good farming. It is no use nowadays trying to run a farm as a hobby, and there is no room for sentiment or eyewash in the administration of it. The farmer has to bo a bit of a chemist, a bit of a botanist, and a bit of a mechanical engineer, but all those bits will not make a farmer unless his corner-stone is a sound business sense. The old idea that a farm can run itself is quite out of date. Farms can no more run themselves successfully than a factory or any other productive concern. It is a matter of careful scienlificf management, with a. very shrewd eon the main chance. All this Vias_ been said often by people who have agricultural experence far greater than my own, but for the sake of those who arc training to succeed (he present generation cannot, over-empha-sise that the chances of making good ore very much stronger when approached from the angle of the business man. ‘I am not laying stress on this point because I think there is any lack of business or viewpoint, either in Leicester or in Nottingham. I certainly would not sav (bat. I would not come as a new Midland farmer to criticise yon who had been here for years and years. _ I really want to make a good impression.—(Laughter and r beers.) I have seen your farms in Leicestershire, and the mej-o seeing them shows that this business sense exists. Ton have to get up very early in the morning to sell a nup to any Midland farmer. — (Loud laughter and cheers.) It, is. very sad for 113 who are able to afford to hunt that tho season is _ coming to an end Having become a Midland farmer, I have a summer interest in this part, of the country as well as a interest, and T look forward to seeing you in the summer in a very informal way. T n the meantime T wish von the verv best luck and prosperity for this year.”