GOVERNMENT EXPERIMENTAL.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 783, 5 April 1910, Page 7

GOVERNMENT EXPERIMENTAL.

; . ...-.'. FARMS. AND THE SYSTEM OF WORKING' '■■■■'. . ' ' ' ' THKiI. Sir,—Prior to about twelve months ago, these farms were carried on in' much the same way as they had been from, the establishing of such, Since that time'a great; deal of nonsense has been taking place, with regard to Moumahaki Farm, in , tlio -first place, the Prime Minister, in his speech at Christchurch, said Cabinet had decided ' to. aholish this farm. This : caused a considerable amount of. comment in the public press. Then, shortly afterwards. Dr.' Pindlay, in a spedch on .prison, "reform, said • that a prison reformatory farm would.: probably bo started on'tho Moumahaki Experimental farm, but this idea was : abandoned after Dr. Hay had inspected, tho larra aiid pronounced it the most unsuitable for tho purpose that could possibly be imagined, apart from the sinful waste qt such a splendid up-to-date farm, thus entailed. . "Very soon'aftor this various rumours were afloat having every appearance of official sanction, that Moumahaki Farm was to. be turned into a cadet training farm, when several hundred; acres,' additional, could be scoured ior the purpose. This proposal seemed to havo died a gradual death, when, like, a bombshell,, oame the Hon. T. Mackenzie s remarkable statement, that in his experienced-judgment, eleven men and , WOOO-α year were quite sufficient to rim the farm, and do all the experimenting necessary, and that therefore ten' men had been dismissed., ."■■' "

Many farmers who did not understand the situation naturally concluded that •the Mimster knew everything that ho was talking about. ■ What is our . surprise, therefore, to find that after Mr. F. Gillanders, with his 1C years of experience in suoh work, had resigned in protest, and when- many of the experiments had run to -ruin, half-a-dozen men, and a dozen Maoris, were quietly taken back again, in a vain endeavour to repair the damage caused by the blustering dismissal of ten .men in November last, when their services-were more necessary than they are now.. Just let any practical farmer, imagine a dozen indiscriminately chosen Maoris—men, women, and Wildron-wecding and thinning-out a thirty-acre paddock of root crops, consisting of, perhaps, 50 different varieties of swedes and mangolds, all these varieties pitted against each,other, and with their calculations so, carefully exact as to areas and quantities of each variety, that any inconsistency in the handling of each win. most certainly make the experiment unreliable,■ and consequently, far wotsb than useless. No experimenter with any laith m his work would think of putting an unreliable farm labourer to handle such intricate experiments, let alone a mob of Maoris. The blame cannot, of course,, bo put upon the new manager- of tho farm, as neither )io nor anyone else cap run experiments properly without the necessary amount of capital,'and it is quite possible that he has entirely given up tho idea of carrying on the experiments, but merely handling them as an ordinary farm crop. Mr. Pearce M l> inaue a statement that Moumahaki"Farm had 300 acres of ploughable land as yet quite untouched. Anyone who has gone over the farm must know .that this is most misleading. Why, the whole farm consists of only 600 acres, 300 of which'is made up of gullies so rough and steep as to be. useless for anything but sheep, while of tue other .300 acres almost every inch is under the plough, as often as judicious, rotational cropping and the farms working stock will allow. Seeing that Mr. J'eavce lives not far from the farm, this statomont of. his is indeed surprising, and it does not say much for his observations of the place.' ■■;' In conclusion of my remarks upon' this farm, I would say that there is nothing of note' on this farm at the present time to warrant its existence as an experiment farm, and in confirmation of this statement, a statement is made by two gentlemen who havo recently visited, the farm from -Han-era;- and who have been accustomed to visit it regularly. Their deEnition of tho farm is that'now there is nothing of any further interest to them or the public generally. (See "Star," March 9.) Probably what had begun to be the greatest feature of tho year on this farm, and what was looked funvard to with very great interest, with .the manager,' Mr. F. Gillanders, and the employees, was the annual visit from the Feilding Farmers' Union, and it is a proved fact that some of these farmers never missed the opportunity of putting in their appearance on every possible occasion, and very many of them confessed to tho fact that tho work carried on at Moumahaki Farm was both interesting and instruetiva. There is not the slightest doubt but that if the late manager had had a free hand, and had had a reasonable amount of capital allowed each year to use anil experiment with in the best possible manner," without tho interference of what might be termed superiors, but better termed inferiors, I am sure tho farmers would, never have submitted to the way, in which things are at present drifting. In Tub Dominion of March 15 tho Hon. T. Mackenzie says he cannot understand tho complaint made in Wanganui that Moumahaki Farm is not what it used to be. Tho Government has spent more money on the. farm this year than ever before, but tho Wnnganui people find it difficult to credit such a statement, when there has been sufficient comment in the papers on the retrenchment and curtailment of r ex . pensos on every hand on this farm at whatever cost and consequence. With referenco to Muakura Farm, Hamilton, very much tho same thing has been taking place, hands reduced, experiments crippled for want of capital to carry them out. The Government have novel' worked these farms on proper lines, for instance, it should have secured the very best and most capable — -ossiljlo, and allowed them a certain

reasonable sum of money every year, to do the very best they could for both experimenting and carrying on the work in general, and then ' compared each farm's work' and progress, and if the result of each farm's work was not equal to the amount expended, then they would bo justified iii appointing a new manager. This, in my opinion, would he the only way of making these farms a real benefit as well as an advantage to the farming community. There has been too much submitting to the instructions given through the ollice in Wellington, as I have already said, by officers who knew nothing of requirements, but who are responsible for such blundering vorit -which has recently taken place. What, perhaps, is the most striking thing at Ruakura i arm, is the new mansion being built for the cadets. As one approaches the rarra, they naturally think that some retired gentleman ■ is building a residence for himself at on unlimited cost, but on being given to understand it is built for cadets ou the form, it is quite incredible, as it is built in all the latest style, and will, it is believed, cost, before finished and furnished, between eight and nine thousand pounds. Is.not this absurd, as a building at one-sixth the cost would have answered the same purpose. One wonders who are running these farms, and why the farmers do not protest against such nonsense, and that they do not sets to having more practical men at the head of the Agricultural Department. J would just say that instead of the Government leading in agricultural pursuits the farmers are leading them, and according, to the Hon. T. Mackenzie's remarks, we are fiizzHng behind. In Canada the Government have decided to further increase the number of experimental farms in Central Canada, in order that the settlers pouring into these newly-opened districts may. have from the outset the benefit ot the work carried on at these stations.—l am, etc., ADVANCED AGRICULTURIST.