PRACTICE OF FARMING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21986, 22 June 1933, Page 3

PRACTICE OF FARMING

SOUND METHODS ADVOCATED NEED FOR REDUCED COSTS (Special to Daily Times.) WELLINGTON, June 21. Addressing the annual conference of,the Royal Agricultural Society this afternoon, the president (Mr L. R. C. Macfarlane) urged farmers to take heed of the past in . shaping their future policy. They recognised now that success came from hard work and good management, not from borrowed money. No doubt in the past many of 'them had made the fatal, mistake of’ clearing their land instead of their mortgages. To-day they had to make farming pay by reducing costs and by cheaper and more efficient methods of working, and any future development. would have to be done out of the resultant profits, not with second mortgage money. “We must not be blinded by the promise of higher prices. Our real road to recovery is along the line of reducing our costs, ’ said Mr, Macfarlane. “So much that we need is still far too dear, anl only by our restraint will we bring the prices of these articles down. Money is falling fast in lending value, and bad as farming is to-day as a business proposition we can get cold comfort from the fact that money invested in the safest of financial securities to-dav does not return above 3J per cent, on to-day’s price, while industrial stocks in this country are quite hopeless. On the face of it the old, despised farm mortgage, so much abused by State interference and legal mismanagement in the past, will soon again come into its own-” Mr Macfarlane pointed out that it was to their mutual advantage to maintain confidence in land investment. Competition in that as in other things would bring down interest rates. In future farmers might even invest some of their profits in secure outside investments as far ns possible from ■ primary . produce, so that during future slumps they would have something to fall back on. Mr Macfarlane emphasised the importance of better stock and thorough cultivation of soil. Science, he said, could help only on very broad lines, for each farm had its own research problems to face. Land to-day must be held by sound, practical men, trained to business as well as agriculture. The present was no time for State experiments with land schemes, continued Mr Macfarlane. Even the present small farms’ scheme, if allowed to develop beyond reasonable means, would produce a crop of noxious weeds, bad debts, scrub stock and discontented men and women. Leadership among the younger farmers of the country was urgently needed to-day. Young men were required who would come forward and welcome the responsibility of • directing the country’s affairs. It was not sufficient merely to talk about- the bonds of Empire. They were in fair competition with the rest of the world, and they could not escape from that competition and continue to enjoy their present standard of living. They had resources far beyond those of any. other nation, and it depended entirely on, how those resources were used ami developed whether' they would continue to be great. The National Royal Agricultural Society was playing its part by maintaining and improving the quality of live stock in the Dominion.