THE TURNIP COMPETITION.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXVI, Issue 10512, 23 November 1912, Page 5

THE TURNIP COMPETITION.

Slß,—Our attention has "been drawn to a letter in your issue of the 19th November, re Turnip Competition. Your correspondent does two things;—(l) asks for information; (2) sheltering behind a nom-de-plume, broadly hints that the president of the Manawatu A. & P. Association used his official position unfairly, for business ends. We are passing on the letter to Mr Hoddef to reply to the second part, referring to him, if bethinks it necessary. In reply to part one:—First: The competition is under the sole control of the Manawatu A. & P. Association. We offered the Association £2O for a Swede Growing Competition, the only condition we stipulated being, that Garton’s Genuine Swede seed had to be sown. The Association accepted our offer, so the only thing we have to do with the Competition is to find the prize money of £2O. A moment’s reflection will show that we shall be out of pocket over the Competition. We only have a limited quantity of Carton’s genuine English seed for sale, but even supposing we had supplied the requirements of the whole district with Garton’s seed, we do not think the profit would anywhere equal the amount of the prize money we, ourselves, are giving, more especially as the. selling prises are fixed by Cartons' and we merely get a selling commisison. Our aim in offering the prize was this: The farming community are becoming more convinced of the fact that, in buying seeds of any kind, the only test is, not the price charged, but the results that will be obtained.. To stimulate and encourage this very gratifying tendency, we offered the prize. Second: A farmer is not debarred from the Competition merely because he may be the client of another merchant in the district. ; For instance, an odd fclient of ours sometimes wishes to try some of Sutton’s seed. We have no trouble whatever in obtaining what we want from the district agents. We are, of course, quite prepared to reciprocate. Third: The advertisement was merely put in by us to give publicity to the Competition. If it has conveyed the wrong impression, such was not our intention, for, on inquiring from our Marton manager, we find he did not compile the advertisement at all, but merely copied, word for word, the announcement the Manawatu A. & P,* Association itself made in its catalogue of the Spring Show.—Yours faithfully, HODDER AND TOLLEY, LTD. P. S. —Of course, only the genuinp Gartons seed, packed in pound sealed packets, will qualify for the Competition. We mention this because there is seed being offered on the market as Garton’s Superlative Swede which (1) was not grown by Gartons, and (2) is not Garton’s regenerated stock.

SIR, —My attention has heen drawn to a letter appearing in your columns of the 19th iust , headed, “A Query,” and signed' ‘‘Eangitikei Farmer.” Only the last part of the letter demands my attention, as president of the Manawatu A. & P. Association, Your , anonymous writer says ‘ ‘lt does not seem right to me that the Association should enter, so to speak, into partnership with any firm, even though one of the firm may happen to he president and, in the past it has heen carefully avoided, I have always understood that hitherto the Association has made it an ahsolute'.rule to refuse all prizes offered with a restriction as to competitors.” Now, sir, this is altogether wrong and misleading, and is also a reflection upon myself. The National Dairy Show, or Winter Show (the name it is generally known hy) lias never yet turned down a prize where the restrictions have heen reasonable and prize money adequate, and if ‘‘Raugitikei Farmer” will send me his .name I shall be happy to forward him a National Dairy Show schedule, where he can find a very large number of trophies and money prizeSj that bear out my contention. With regard to ‘‘restriction of competitors, ” this is not so, as my friend can procure his turnip seed through any firm from whom he wishes to do his business. For the information of “Rangitikei Farmer” I may state that when my firm made this offer of a £2O prize for a turnip-growing competition, a small committee from the general committee was set up to deal with it. They' reported favourably and the Dairy Show Committee have accepted it, with thanks. The turnip growing competitions have been in vogue in Southland, Otago and Masterton districts for some yeas, and we, as an Association, have felt that we have somewhat lagged behind in this respect: our object is to extend the sphere of usefulness of our Asseciation, and this is one direction by which it can be done. It is to be hoped that many farmers will enter for this, competition, and thus make it a practical, useful and interesting event.-—I am, etc., T. R. HODDER. President Manawatu A. & P. Association.