STATE FARMS.

Ohinemuri Gazette, Volume XXI, Issue 2728, 7 December 1910, Page 3

STATE FARMS.

THEIR FUTURE USE

The lines on which the State farms should be conducted has been a topic of controversy so often that the portion of the Minister for Agriculture's annual report dealing with the subject will be read with special interest. The Minister, who holds that the experiment and demonstration work clone on the State farms is of great value, says that the department aims at making the institutions still more instructive to farmers and others, while due economy in management is to be observed. " The reports of experiments (says the report), instead of, as heretofore, being included in the annual report ot the department, will be published as soon as available in the monthly journal of the department, and will thus reach more quickly those for whose benefit the experiments are carried out. Most of the stud horses have been sold, and those remaining will be so placed as to be remunerative to the department while of benefit to farmers. Steps are being taken to strengthen the pedigree herds of dairy cattle, so that in due time farmers may be supplied with bulls of undoubted milking-strain. The stud flocks of sheep are maintained at a high standard of quality ; the ordinary flocks have given good returns, and have also afforded the opportunity ot conducting experiments in the breeding and rearing of lambs for the export trade. . . ■

The agricultural experiments have coy- ! ered a very wide range, the chief subjects being in relation to pastures and i varieties of grasses, varieties of cereals, varieties and manuring of roots and fodder crops, the management of orchards and vine-yards, and varieties of fruit, it is also being endeavoured, by means of plant and seed selection and plant-breeding, to discover or evolve improved strains or varieties of the various economic plants, which will be characterised by large yield and resistance to diseases and pesls. Some progress has been made in these various directions, a considerable volume oi preliminary work in plant-breeding having been done at the Moumahaki Farm, and a smaller but still useful quantity at other farms. The operations so far have been mainly directed towards the breeding, by selection or crossing, of a variety or varieties oi oats which shall be of good quality and productivity, while resistant to rust. Some attention has also been given to grasses and cereals. This work is of great importance, and it is hoped that it may be placed on such a footing as to lead to valuable results."