THE VALUE OF EXPERIMENTAL FARMS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2927, 20 April 1910, Page 6

THE VALUE OF EXPERIMENTAL FARMS.

In other parts of the world, especially in the United States of America-, the value of farm experimental stations is becoming more and more apparent. In this Dominion the experimental work which wa.s carried out at the several farms in the North Island was materially helping the 'armers of New Zealand. Unfortunately, we have not enough of them, and the largest agricultural area of the Dominion is without any experimental station at all. The necessity which exists for the establishment of a thoroughly up-to-date experimental farm in the South Island is apparent to all progressive farmers. A State farm is a necessary adjunct to an agricultural college, the practical work gained on the farm completing the school instruction given, and the combination is worth very many lectures. The most successful and best-educated farmers of to day fresly admit that they still have much to learn in the management of their farms. They also know that doubtful questions of farm management aire best treated by experts who have been trained at agricultural colleges. The trouble at the present time is that we cannot get the Government to move in the matter, and, although Ministers of Agriculture have all been southerners, year after year has been allowed to pass, without any step being taken. Two stations are really required, but were an experimental' farm established in North Otago, advantage would be taken of it by most of the farmers in the South Island, who realise that they learn as much from failures as from successes in the management of land, and it is obviously the duty oi the State farm to show up by comparison anything of that nature, and by lis experimental work to prove the superiority of one method- over another. While the Minister of Agriculture is to be commended in endeavouring as far as possible to make the experimental stations self-supporting, it cannot be expected that these farms will altogether pay their way, and effectual demonstration to the country generally is of more importance than profit-making on the station. A .State farm properly considered must be regarded as indirectly a most profitable investment for the Dominion, and should not be utilised as an agent for money-making for the State. It is chiefly a necessary agency in rendering more effectual the work and experiences gained on the farm. It certainly improves the farmers' incomes indirectly by giving him the benefit of improved methods of cultivation. It directs him as to the best seeds to use ; it shows him the proper fertilisers to apply to particular crops, and generally imparts information in every department of stock and farm management. We are fortunate in New Zealand in possessing officers at the head of the various departments of agriculture who are ever ready to impar' information gained from experience for the use of the community generally, and it is not too much to say that but for the skil' of those in charge of the various agricultural departments farmere would have suffered more than they have done from losses, by diseases of stock and insect pests. The State farm should be considered as part and parcel of the Agricultural Department. The work already carried out has been appreciated by the agriculturists of New Zealand, and there is no reason to be dissatisfied with what we already have; but the farmers of the South Island do expect to have a station established within reasonable distance, where they can visit and .obtain direct information and instruction concerning what is going on. Of one thing the Minister of Agriculture may be quite sure, and that is that when such an experimental farm is established in the South Island it will be very much more appreciated by the farming community generally than are the stations at present doing such good work in the North Island of New Zealand.