INFORMATION BY TRAIN.

Otago Witness, Issue 3274, 13 December 1916, Page 8

INFORMATION BY TRAIN.

The plan of the Great Eastern Railway in England to equip and send an "egg and poultry " demonstration train, through agricultural districts of the eastern counties is deemed an excellent educative measure. A similar plan has already been worked in Wales with satisfactory results This year the "Better Farming Train" had a most successful tour on the lines of the Canadian Northern Railway, There was something of interest to everyone from the youngest child to the oldest man or woman -present. These trains are a result of a co-operative movement between the Provincial Department of Agriculture, the College of Agriculture, and the railways. The department furnished part of the exhibit material and a number of lecturers, arranged the itinerary, and were responsible for the programme; and the railway company furnished and operated the entire train, while the college furnished the major part of the exhibits, Including the live stock carried, and also a number of the lecturers and demonstrators. The train consisted of some 15 cars In all, 10 of which were used for demonstration of lecturo work. A section of the train was given over to animal husbandry, whero representatives of the

various breeds of cattle, sheep, and swine wero exhibited. In the field husbandry section, lectures were given at various stopping places daily on subjects such as forage crops, methods of tillage, etc. There was a poultry section containing models of builaings and devices of interest to poultrymen, and addresses and demonstrations were given on the collecting, candling, and grading of eggs. Other sections included a comprehensive exhibit of mechanical devices, such as models of pneumatic water supply systems, a model dairy with cooling tanks, cream separator and tester, a farm electric light equipment, etc. There were also household science, a boys' and girls' and nursery sections. In all some 23,000 visited the train, and judging by the keen inteiost displayed by the visitors the "Better Farming Train " was evidently a genuine success. The idea came from the United States, where agricultural demonstrations have been in operation for a good many years, and are said to have "caught on" from the first. The information distributed from the train in America is of a general agricultural character, and farmers are said to be quite eager to avail themselves of the opportunities thus afforded of getting hints as to the best methods of conductins farming operations. The different railway companies, realising that increased crops mean increased traffic, co-operate in the movement. The following account shows how the plan is worked : —"The train was made up of seven cars, and visited 120 out of 146 counties in Georgia. The only reason it did not get to the others was that they had no railroads. We wrote to the mayor of every town and city and said : 'The train will come to your town if you want to have it. Send us a petition if you want it.' As a result, we interested the city and the Board of Trade and every interest in that part of the country in getting the farmers out; and it was not a city crowd that met us: there were city people, but the farmers came from far and near. I saw plenty of men who told mo that they drove 20 miles before 8 o'clock _in the morning to be present at that train stop. And then we reached the boys and girls; we had an exhibit of club work for them and data on the selection of corn and on the canning of tomatoes and other vegetables, and we had practically all the white school children in Georgia to meet that train. I know that a good many people think it is an exaggeration; but I tell you, in all sincerity and honesty—and there are men here from Georgia who know it is true —that we had anywhere from 2000 to 8000 people at a stop, and I saw those farmers stand out there just as close together as a box of sardines could be packed for two hours in the rain, when they were wet to the skin, to hear this fertiliser and soil problem discussed. Three hundred and fifty thousand people visited that train, and. cur estimate is 100,000 below that given by the railroad officials who accompanied it. •' "We can repeat that kind of thing again. There is a demand all over the State for it."