THE AGRICULTURAL DEPARTMENT.

Otago Witness, Issue 2849, 21 October 1908, Page 21

THE AGRICULTURAL DEPARTMENT.

THE BELATED ANNUAL REPORTS. The sixteenth report of the Department of Agriculture, which includes the reports of the expert heads of the various divisions, is to hand. A great deal of valuable work is done by the department, ar>d the records of much of it are buried in this volume of nearly 800 pages. The reports are for the year ending March last, and the delay of seven months has reduced their value to a large extent. Tho delay means that a season has been lost by any farmer who might desire to profit by the experiments carried on. by the department, and as the statistical records arc available in other publications, the money spent in compiling and printing the bulky report is largely wasted. To bo of value to agriculturists, the report should he in their hands not later than the beginning of August, when they are formulating their plans for the next season's work. With the following complaint in the Dominion, we are not in 'entire accord, but there is much in it that is -worthy of the attention of the department, and especially of the Minister in charge: — It may be doubted if the large amount of tho taxpayers' money spent on the- annual production of the Agricultural Department's report is .well invested. Much of that report is devoted- to a review of the past, and too little information for the future. To a farmer thirsting for knowledge of how to increase his crops, the reviews of the past to which hundreds of pages of the report are devoted must appear very dry reading. Possibly all this uninteresting mass of matter might be worth typing and pigeon-holing in the Minister's office. But a-3 part, of a document rrinted at great public expense for distribution to benefit the farmers of the country, it is obviously overdone. The Dominion has on former occasions pointed out the need of more practical work, but, unfortunately, the Minister does not appear to possess the utilitarian spirit co necessary in the head of a great and costly department. The report tells of laborious experiments conducted on the exporiment farms, but for want of the specialist to draw the deductions and build up interesting and instructive articles on thorn, from which the farmers could learn something, the enormous expense involved in the maintenance of these station.-} is largely wasted. These experiment farms must show their fruits through the departmental reports or not at all. For, out of reach as they are from most of the farmers, then cannot be said to exist to be visited and looked at. The investigators may be discovering diamonds of knowledge on these costly departmental establishments, but unless discoveries are nresentcd through the department's literature in a manner that will take hold of the farmer's mind, those diamonds will benefit practically nobody bufc the experimenters themselves. The records as they appear in the annual report are doubtless proper records for farm overseers,- etc., to present to their specialists. But they are maimy the raw material on which the" specialist should write. Much of their contents have no right in their raw state to a place in an expensive annual report. — A Notorious Circular. — The Minister's policy in this respect is raihcr perplexing. The policy initiated with "Circular 333" is destined in the future to be regarded as perhaps one of the most curious of the administrative acts of the pres-ant Parliament. Circular 033 in effect expelled all the departmental^ cxtsrts out of the exp/Timent farms. Ino State biolo£?i-t. chemist, \oteiinarian, dany commi«3ion'er, or \jmuhun-t has no right to put a foot upon any one of the experiment farm= without the .-prcial permi ft -;on of the Bcncial Dncctor of Experiment country imaßinrs that ihc«c farms exist for the purpose of earning on important and hijrhlv technical expei imen =, but the error of &u"h an impre-Mor m t.ic heht of Circular 333 becomes at once apparent. The highly technical experiments are- bein- carried on by unskilled faun foremen, under a s.^tom of rM-tapoism. ruder this system the biolojri-t, Mtieuiturist, or othor specialist is unable to comi.mnicate direct i»ith tho worker cngaircd m carMine on hi» experiment-. 333 mu«t hang like a rml -tone about the neck of every tin Uional hea.l of the de- ■ partmenr, stifling any attempt to do. worr. of real valua. to tlu» farmers. It is not; intended to imply that there should be no | directoi of experiments but that a policy , which makes the State, specialists antrudsr* when they visit the farms should be swepb out of existence. — Questions Unanswered. — It is therefore not surprising that the recordb of the farm experiments are composed of so much that is prosy and uniu-

structive. The report, however, fails in other directions. Throughout its halfthbusand pages one finds too few articles that aim to answer tho many poignant questions that are always occurring in the course of farming practice. And it is rathar singular the most important branches of the industry seem to be those which are the most neglected in this respect. The great outcry of last season for guidance in providing against periods of drought in the future has met with very feeblo response in the annual report, and farmers who are anxious to provide abundance of feed will -do well to seek instruction, on this branch of farming elsewhere. In regard to the peneral m&nagment of stock, tnc starting of farms by beginners, who are so numerous in New Zealand, the most suitable varieties of animal or crops for different coils and climates of the country, and improved methods and new discoveries affecting the various branches of agriculture, tho report is distressingly silent, or ha 3 its information buried in "an improper setting. The scheme of the whole report shows a deplorable lack cf journalistic and commercial instinct. The monthly bulletins issued by the State departments of Australia contain much brighter reading, and must cost much les3 to produce.