RATIONAL FARMING

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18635, 2 August 1930, Page 10

RATIONAL FARMING

SCIENTIFIC GUIDANCE IN NEW ZEALAND. DR. MARSDEN’S OPINIONS. Important points in scientific study to improve farming methods in New Zealand were given by Dr E. Marsden, secretary to the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, in an address to businessmen in Wellington. Dr Marsden advanced the opinion that New Zealand producers should take advantage of the opportunities offered by the climate of this country. There was abundant energy from the sun, and, with a well distributed rainfall, this energy could be used to a greater extent in developing marketable foodstuffs. The relation of climate to soil, plant, and animal life needed to be understood more fully, and its effect on the “processing” of agricultural product had to be considered. The whole basis of farming was in soil characteristics, but only recently had science made practical headway in judging the complex variations of soil. It was not merely a question of chemical elements in the soil, but their availability and interaction with physical, chemical, and biological conditions, modified by climate. Other countries were engaged in classifying and mapping soils as a basis for cropping and fertiliser programmes, rational land occupation and even taxation. New Zealand had passed from extensive to intensive use of land. Rational guidance concerning the land characteristics of the country was needed now. The greatest area of undeveloped land was in the centre of the North Island, where unique soil conditions prevailed. It was surmised that volcanic ash limited the use of land by causing serious stock diseases of animal nutritional character. Already a survey of considerable portions of the area had been achieved to prove the relation between soil type and disease incidence. All the soils of New Zealand had, in more or less acute forms, similar problems awaiting solution. New Zealand was on the threshold of rationalisation methods, and their application to pastures. The movement, Dr Marsden thought, was capable, with necessary modifications in grassland management, of doubling the capacity of the better pastures within less than a decade. The position of second-class land had not yet been touched, but there would be immense possibilities when the large proportion of the superficial area of the Dominion included in this category was considered. The proper use of better pastures made high-class stock necessary, and the same principle of survey had to be extended to New Zealand’s animal resources. Herd-testing associations had been successful. These movements were leading to standards of production. There was little doubt that, as present, farming in New Zealand and elsewhere did not yield 5 per cent, on capital. Because of rapid changes in world production and requirements, the doctrine of placing New Zealand’s land

products on a reasonably broad basis had to be recognised. Centralisation had been taking place in recent years in the factory production of the produce of the land, but there was still much to be done toward rationalisation when overlapping in obtaining supplies for dairy, meat and bacon factories was considered. One of the principal features to-day in rationalisation was the free pooling of technical knowledge in the interests of the industry as a whole. This was particularly evident in the dairy industry. Grading systems had educational as well as marketing value.