MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE

Taranaki Daily News, 11 September 1934, Page 15 (Supplement)

MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE

EFFORTS OF HIS DEPARTMENT. STATE WILLING TO AID FARMERS. “In view of the importance of dairying in Taranaki and of the current need for thorough consideration of many important aspects of the dairy industry, as Minister of Agriculture, I have pleasure in contributing a statement for publication in the special dairy industry number of the Taranaki Daily News. “The difficult years through which New Zealand farming has been passing have revealed most strikingly the great potentialities in our farming resources and in our farmers themselves, and it is fitting that nationally nothing should be left undone which could be done to conserve the results of the past endeavours of our splendid rural community. “The principal function of the Department of Agriculture is to administer governmental measures designed to assist the farming community both in weathering the present difficult times and In building soundly for the future. In this task the research and advisory ser-

vices of the Department of Agriculture play a prominent and essential part and it seems fitting to record herein the close and valuable co-operation between the farming community and the Department of Agriculture that has obtained for years in Taranaki. Two outstanding current instances of valuable co-operation may be cited to illustrate the happy blending of science and practice thalz. has resulted. Firstly, farmers’ field crop competitions have been conducted throughout Taranaki, for many years. These competitions rightly have changed as the needs of Taranaki farming have changed. They have co-ordin-ated the views of the man on the land and those of the department and to them correctly may be attributed some portion of the high standard of efficiency which characterises pasture management and supplementary cropping in Taranaki.

“Secondly, Taranaki farmers have cooperated freely and usefully with the department in the field trials, which are conducted on private farms throughout the Dominion. Incidentally in many respects' these field trials judiciously distributed on private farms are preferable in the information they yield to equally

or more costly work conducted at a relatively large state experimental farm. An important feature of the field trials is the survey of the fertiliser requirements of grassland that is being made and although this has been in progress only a few seasons already in Taranaki very interesting results have been obtained. For years in top-dressing farmers assumed the necessity of phosphates and this assumption has been fully confirmed by the survey. “But the survey has gone further—it has provided field evidence that in certain parts of Taranaki, but only in certain parts and not in the whole of Taranaki, pastures benefit from potash. The exact economic value of this benefit has not yet been ascertained, but the evidence suggests that on certain Taranaki soils the trial use of potash on a fairly extensive scale is well justified. In view of the results already obtained in the top-dressing survey it is of moment that last season was marked by a substantial decline in the amount of artificial fertiliser carried on the railways in Taranaki. Why this decline occurred is easy to understand. Whether it should have occurred and whether the decreased topdressing programme should continue calls, for the careful consideration of the Taranaki rural community. “In the eyes of the department Taranaki has been characterised by a tendency to help itself. This demonstration of its sincerity encourages the State also to help as much as possible. There still remains much scope for Taranaki’s co-operation with the Department of Agriculture—in fact, investigation into certain important aspects of animal husbandry is n'W under consideration—and a continuation of past happy relations promises to be mutually advantageous and certainly will be appreciated by the Department of Agriculture. C. E. MACMILLAN, Minister’ of Agriculture.