SCIENCE AND THE FARMER.

Waikato Independent, Volume XXIX, Issue 3160, 12 November 1929, Page 4

SCIENCE AND THE FARMER.

Dairy farmers have been feeding out of the hands of scientific men for some time past, and have expected to be led into a land flowing with butterfat and big factory cheques, so that it came as a rather cruel surprise to them to hear from Mr P. O. Veale, the Hawera dairy expert, that science was working just as hard for the big margarine combines as for the toiling dairy farmer. The man on the land has learned the value of top-dressing his pastures with slag, lime, or superphosphate, and is thinking of trying nitrogen and never permitting his grass to grow more than three or four inches high. Incrcas-

ed production per acre has followed the application of the teachings of science, and farmers have been dreaming of a time when the milk supply will steadily increase and prices will bo well maintained, even if they do not rise. They saw the promised land ahead, and now the man who has helped te lead them within sight of it tells them that his brother workers have been toiling so successfully that margarine and other imitations of milk products are becoming so perfect as to deceive the very elect. Even if the perfection of margarine was slightly exaggerated by Mr Vcale in order to make his point, it is necessary to remind farmers that the battle is never won. Butter that comes from a real cow and not from test tubes and bottles will always hold its ground, provided it is of go'od quality and not too dear. It is the price that gives margarine its place in the market, and if butter is to beat it the cost of the natural product must not be very much greater. Farmers should beware of those who tell them that by manipulating the market and holding dairy produce in cool store they can force up prices to an unnatural level; this policy is only playing into the hands of the producers of substitutes. The farmer in this Dominion should look rather to increasing his yield per acre so much that he can make more money than he does now even with lower prices in London. Margarine costs money to 7>roduce, and its price cannot be cut below a certain point, so that there is a definite limit to its power of competition.