EXPERIMENTING BY FARMERS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2811, 26 August 1908, Page 6

EXPERIMENTING BY FARMERS.

The remark by the Secretary of Agriculture (Mr J. D. Ritchie) at the Farmers'* Union Conference that the subsidising of A. and P. associations to conduct experiments had proved unsatisfactory and would not be continued was very disappointing. It would appear from further official utterances on the occasion that the Agricultural Department intends to arrange direct with farmers for the carrying out of experiments under the supervision of officers of the department. This will do air ay with the principle of co-operation, which is one of the strongest recommendations of the farmers' experiment sj^stem of Ontario and several of the United States. Union amongst farmers to obtain information and experience which will benefit themselves and each other has been productive of immense profit wherever it has been brought into action, and if the New Zealand A. and P. associations cannot or will not undertake the organisation of experiments, which should be one of their chief functions, the branches of the Farmers' Unions (which have a more local field of operations) should carefully take it up. The Government has time upon time proferred. assistance to any m scheme of the sortt It is, perhaps, scarcely fair to blame farmers for the <- neglect, so far, of ,the opportunity, and to compare the lethargy in New Zealand with the enthusiasm which in Canada is shown by 8000 members in co-operative agricultural experiments. The Canadian system was organised by ex-students of the Ontario Agricultural College as a means of extending and directing into practical channels the knowledge which they had gained at that institution. We '

have no such numerous class of scientific cally educated young farmers in New Zealand — indeed, it is often occasion for re-< mark that at gatherings of farmers i for purposes of instruction the majority are "graybeards," the young farmers giving their attention more to football matches or races. This is a condition of affairs which cannot be rectified by the efforts of the Agricultural Department or its -experts, or the score or so of scientific young farmers turned out yearly by Lincoln Agricultural College. It is a matter for local effort. If experiments are wanted in a district the farmers of the district must unite to carry tnem out on a definite system, by which reliable results will be obtained and communicated to the participants. If the assistance of the Government is accepted the information gained must, of- course, be available to- the- public, ■ bat. it would be a truism to state that those who conduct the experiments will be the first and greatest gamers by them. The promise of the Government department to assist the farmer experimenters implies that competent instructors and recorders "will be appointed — which is a Wtejj that bjis for years • been urged by the Witness and' by agriculturists in all parts of 'the Dominion, who desire to see better use made of the soil. The productiveness of New Zealand .in all "the greater and most of the minor articles of cultivation stands high in comparison - with other countries,* but no oneii can say it- has yet been iuHy Farmers have received mucn good guidance from the Government -experts, but, without deprecating the abilities of these officers, it must be recognised that they cannot do all that is required. Men ar» needed who, combining science with practice, will go upon the land, and by knowledge or research determine the proper treatment of the ' soil and the kind' or rotation of crops to plant. Farmers would be directed to experiment on lines almost certain to be productive of successful results, and this would encourage others to participate, until the country was covered with a net--work of farmers' experimental unionsj and. the quality and volume of the production, of crops, meat, wool, butter, cheee-e, an-d other articles would be enormously increased. Farmers should not delay in taking the first step by forming little clubs to take up the work.