Wasteful Saving.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 14074, 4 December 1909, Page 1 (Supplement)

Wasteful Saving.

CLOSING OF A STATE FARM

The following instructive letter appears in the " Wanganui Chronicle oi November 29th: — , Information has just reached me that practically the whole of the Moumahaki Experimental Farm staff have received notice to quit at the end of the month, owing, it is. said,,to the smallnes of this present years vote making it entirely impossible to carry on the usual experiments. As one very -much interested in everything done on that farm, I. wish to I know many farmers will be with me —against tho stoppage of experimental work at a season of the year when labour is most essential to tlie proper carrying on of the experiments, and more especially when thousands of pounds are being spent in far less important directions of the State's activity. "When visiting the farm recently everything was (looking in first-class order, although, as I was told, the staff was. even then several hands short of the usual at that time of the year. The extensive mangold and turnip variety, manuring tests, were being commenced with, and from now onwards the plants will need thinning out —requiring all the available labour on the farm. The valuable potato variety and manuring trials were looking splendid, and will soon require a, good deal of labour in oarthing up and spraying. Tho wheat variety trials we're also doing well, and the results arc being anxiously waited for by many farmers in the North Island who are thinking of changing to one or two of the new sorts which cropped so well last year. I understood that some twenty odd varieties of wheat, thirty of oats, and eleven of barley are being on the farm this year. The maize and millet variety and cultural tests (of nil experiments perhaps the most valuable to Taranaki and surrounding districts) wero being commenced with and will soon be ready for tho cultivator, as will also be the important kale, cattle-cabbage, and rape experiments." I understand that one solitary nurseryman, is all that will bo left of the small staff of three which up to now lias been doing such good work in the experimental garden and orchard, and which has had more influence than some people imagine on the methods of planting and treating fruits trees on this coast. Why, in less than three months' time the whole place will be a mass of weeds, and the experiments ninde useless for a whole year to come.

Lovers of horticulture will be grieved to learn that the beautiful hothouse, with its wonderful show of exotics, flowering plants grapes, cucumbers, and pineapples, and from which many an enthusiastic amateur — and professional too—has learnt * a wrinkle in the management of plants, is to be a dream of the past inside a month. How is it possible for one. iimn to attend to all the espalier and walltrained trees which have been proved the only really successful methods of growing fruit on this blizzard-infested coast?

Then take the plant-breeding work, initiated a year ago, and which is already showing great promise, particularly in the direction of improving on our really only rust-resisting oat—the Algerian. What is to become of this practically scientific and intensely valuable undertaking with the necessary labour.

The pasture top-dressing experiments the grass plots, the bullock feeding, ensilage-making, and sheep breeding, experiments—What is to become of alt these without the necessary labour wherewithal to handle them.

Many of the experiments will take years of consecutive results to enable reliable data to be secured, and the stoppage of work for -this season will render many of them partly useless. Sir, the whole stupid idea seems to be to save money at once, no matter what the future cost may be, and it is being carried out with a vengeance in Connection with that farm, as, if it is to go on as an experimental station, or even partly as a cadet training centre, it will require twice the 'present amount of labour to put it straight again after being without attention.for a while, let alone the complete loss "f hundreds, of pounds worth of really valuablo experiments with ropt anil other crops. To my mind the stoppage of work at the Moumahaki Experiment Farm at this season of the year (for the'&ikc of saving a few hundred pounds)' will be an immense loss to the district, and an insult to the enthusiastic and capable farm manager who has put his whole heart and soul into tho work for the last twelve or fourteen years. From tho several visits which I have paid to the farm, and from reading its really instructive, reports, I am convinced that not a penny of public money has been wasted there —that is, so far as it is possible, with such a largely speculative work, and I know many fanners who will agree with me that the results of the experiments carried on there for several years past have been of inestimable I'aluo to all classes of the farming community. To my way of thinking it is quite out of the question to expect an experiment farm to pay its way —that,is, if experiments are to be conducted in the thorough, practical manner which they have been in the past (on that farm at any rate),, and on perusal of tho financial results attained in connection with agricultural colleges and cadet training farm in Australia. T am convinced that to make Moumahaki into a. training ground for budding farmers would make it even less remunerative than it is at present, while it would be impossible to carry on many of tho present important "experiments owing to the absence of the. skilled and' reliable manual labour necessary for their complete success.

Moumahaki is a. credit to tho district although I am sorry to .say many of us have not appreciated it in the past as wo should Lava done, hut its value as an educational institution is slo.wly hut surely becoming known. If is high time that our State farms were put far above influence by the fluctuations of any Government's financial necessities —such, experiment work being just', as vitally important as any other branch of education, and who would dare to suggest surtailment of reasonable expenditure on any of our public schools and colleges. While on this subject of experiment

farm, I would like to ask why wo do not reccivo their valuablo reports each year, as soon as results are attainable? And when the report comes to hand, why is it hidden away among wlint is—to most of us—a useless muss of statistics and scientific investigations in tho ponderous year book of tho Department of Agriculture? - Surely it must strike most pcoplo as ludicrous that tho results of one season s experiments cannot be published and distributed long before tho following season's sowing is made, seeing that several months intervene. . In my own case I received verbal information as to many of the results', and was, therefore, enabled to plan my operations accordingly, but many thousands of farmers cannot afford tho time to visit the farm, and so have to reJy solely upon a belated report for all information.

In conclusion. I would suggest that it you can-rouse public opinion "«»i this question before Parliament closes down,