FARMING AT HOME.

Waikato Times, Volume 105, Issue 17606, 10 January 1929, Page 9

FARMING AT HOME.

LESSON FROM DOMINION. Writing to "The Spectator,” Sir John Russell, Director of the Rothamsted Experimental Station, who was recently in New Zealand, maintains that the English farmer has something to learn from the Dominions. “In going round the dairy farms of New Zealand,” he says, “the usual almost invariable, question asked me was: ‘How can we get more animal food out of our land, especially out of our pastures'?’ This struck me as very refreshing, and I asked: ‘Can you sell all you get at present?’ The reply was illuminating: ‘All, and more.’ The production side has been so well keyed up that the salesmen can deliver to Great Britain large quantities of butter of uniform good quality; and the marketing is so well done ; that the farmer receives 75 to 80 per cent of what the British housewife pays. Our dairy farmers at home, unless they are also retailers, receive considerably less, many getting only 50 per cent. The British farmer is certainly not inferior to the Australian or the New Zealander in skill or technical knowledge. But just as he learned the use of the self-binder from Canadian farmers and profited much thereby, so he may be able to iearn something from, those in Australia and -New Zealand who are making a profit out of commodities on which he would make little or nothing. It is our business at Rolhamsted to recognise these facts to examine them fully, and extract from them whatever we can that seems likely to help the British farmer.