N.Z. FARMERS GREAT NAME

Chronicle (Levin), 19 July 1947, Page 4

N.Z. FARMERS GREAT NAME

BRITISH INTEREST IN METHODS New Zealand f armers had a great name in Britain and British farmers were always interested in New Zealand farming methods, said Mr. G. Robinsbn, M. Agr. Sc., laie of Levin but now a lecturer at Massey Agricultural College, during the course of an address to members of the Levin Junior Chamber of- Commerce on Thursday night. The speaker was one of six New Zealanders selected by the Government to go to Britain in 1942 and assist the farmers in a drive to inerease the development of their land. With the outbreak of war, the British Government had realised that food was as important as mumtions, and had deeided on an all o.ut drive to inerease production. As Mr. Robinson's specialty was grasses, he had asked permission to follow up this line of assiscance. New Zealand, he said, had a name for its grasses, which was foremost in the world. On arrival in Britain he had met and conferred with the various officers of the Agricultural Department. Milk production was a high priority in Great Britain then, and milk was rationed. Wheat came next and potacoes and other lines followeS. After having been sent to a Government grasslands improvement centre at Warwickshire, he had been sent to Monmouth County. His work had been purely of an advisory nature- and though the farmers were often inclined to be resentful of visits, the fact that he was a New Zealander was his best standby. This fact was soon realised by the authorities, with the resul-t that he was often sent to the more "difficult" farmers. Before he had been two days in the district he had made the acquaintance of a Mr. Bill Jenkins, who had spent 25 years in New Zealand, being the one-time chairman of ihe Norsewood Dairy Company, retuming to England and his home district of Monmouth in 1939. He had taken over .one of the derelict farms of the district against the advice of al-1 in the locality, and had turned it into a first class farm. An indicaiion of the state of the farm when he first took over , was the faet that in the first year heUiad only two drayloads of straw after harvesting 60 acres of wheat. ! In 1944 he was regarded as the most successful farmer and largest milk producer in. the district, said I Mr. Robinson. "This fact was of I great value to me, as here I had a ready made experiment and worki ing model of the results of New Zealand methods," concluded the spaaker.