DEMONSTRATION FARM

Taranaki Daily News, 11 September 1934, Page 29 (Supplement)

DEMONSTRATION FARM

AREA AT WAIMATE WEST. NO FUNDS FOR EXPERIMENTATION. The Waimate West Demonstration Farm, an excellently farmed area of rich land on the Manaia Road, near . Manaia, is not at present functioning in the manner intended by the founders. For several years, under the control of a committee, of which Mr. J. M. Smith, Department of Agriculture, is chairman, experimental work was carried out with 'the assistance of a Government subsidy to show the farmer, not so much what he should do, as what he should not do. Several experiments of a valuable nature have been conceived at Waimate West, but have had to be abandoned. It is not possible to run an experimental farm to show a .farmer what he should not do without making a loss, and when the Government subsidy disappeared' so did the experiments. Since then the committee has had to carry on the farm under ordinary fanning conditions to pay its way. They are proving successful in showing the former what he should do as the farm i* paying its way. That is not the point, however. The experimental farm is debarred from loss-resulting experiments and only a few inexpensive trials are being carried out. 'i ■ . It is not known how long the present state of will last, but it is expected that the fate of the farm will be settled one way or the other by the Dairy Commission’s report. At present the Department of Agriculture pays rent to the Lands Department and in spite of efforts to obtain the money for experimental purposes the creditor department insists on payment. . The records of achievement by the Waimate West Experimental Farm for the past year contain' little to chronicle. But the farm is there, the committee is waiting, and further service to .the South. Taranaki farmers will be given as ( SOOB as possible.