HELPING THE FARMER.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 836, 7 June 1910, Page 8

HELPING THE FARMER.

MINISTER'S INTENTIONS.. . Tho Minister for Agriculture, is losing no opportunity of getting into touch with the farmers of New Zealand. Last week he was in the south at the Dunedin winter show, the week beforo at tho Marlon Conference of tho Fanners' Union, and this week he goes north to Taranaki for the first winter show at Now Plymouth. In- the courso of conversation with a Dominion representative, yesterday, Mr. Mackenzip said he had a good many different things in view for extending the usefulness of his Department, but everything depended on whether the country was ready for a forward movement. If money had to bo saved and expenditure kept down much would have, of course, to go by the board. This year, for instance, the big and educative Departmental exhibit was only being shown at the winter; shows at Dunedin, Palmerston North, Hamilton, and Auckland. Hawera would have to be content with an exhibit .from the Moumahaki experiment farm. Personally, lie would like" to sea the exhibit sent to every show possible. At Dunedin it was one of the main features,'' and attracted great attention.'. An immense amount was, -he thought, learned from it by the fanners attending the show. However, people complained of the expense, and they could • not carry" on without money. On several occasions lately Mr. Mackenzie has spoken of the desirability of, the State planting out fruit farms on. Audi of'tho poor lands of. the Dominion as are adapted for the purpose. _ These lands, while useless for ordinary farming purposes, make- excellent orchards,- but they need capital for .their development, as crops cannot lie grown arid a return obtained while the trees are coming- into

bearing. Mr' Mackenzie stated .last evening that a few more .fruit farms' had been laid out by the staff at Wacrenga experiment station as in past years, but no further step had yet been taken. The system of tree-planting, by. prison labour, ww in force,'was naturally just as well adapted for the' planting of fruit trees as of any other variety'of trees, and as Dr. Findlay had stated at . Auckland ivould no doubt be made use of for the purpos?. The planting out of orchards on, the poor lands; said Mr. Mackenzie' wag undoubtedly a work for the State. Something' was being' done privately in this direction on the Moutere Hills at Nelson with very successful results, but he was convinced that what was needed was for the State to lay out the orchards and have-them seen to during the four or- five years before the trees came into bearing. The meeting at the Dunedin show at irhich the question of. pasteurising skimmilk, and' whey had. been discussed was, Mr. Mackenzie stated, most successful. It .was-.attended by, about 120 representatives of dairy companies, . and he thought there was hardly a factory in' the south that was not represented. After he had introduced the matter. Mr. Cuddie and Mr. Eeakes had followed. The, gathering responded most sympathetically "and. carried, a resolution.in 'favour; of pasteurising being adopted!' In fact' one of the largest dairy companies in the south had decided'to begin pasteurising its whey, and skim-milk at once, and there was no doubt that the system would :be widely adopted in Otago and Southland next season. . Mr. Mackenzie' laid he. was considering the question of molding a similar meeting during the Palmerston show. His desire in this matter, and generally, was to work systematically and in co-operation with the farmers as far as possible. Asked whether the Government intend-.

*d to [proceed with' legislation' for-, the examination j of 1 bn'the'.'^ines"' .'sketched by 'Mr.""Eeakes at the MaftSn •conference, Mr. Mackenzie said he had

;had to'leave the conference before Mr. '.Beakes spoke on the subject, and did rnot hear what he had said. Mr.: Mackenzie - added that he' did' not think a ..voluntary system would meet the position, but it-had hot yet been finally de-cided-how 'fair it: was'advisable'to "go' iin the. matter.

_ With reference to the projected monthly .'journal which the' Department is about ito publish, Mr. Mackenzie said the first

number would be out very shortly, and .'. . as a matter of fact lie was going that > night to look through the articles that were to appear in it. The success of the cow-testing experiment at Dalefield has naturally aroused great interest in this question. Last : year two or three other dairying centres asked that the Department should . also conduct tests in their districts, but it was decided- that operations for the first season should be confined to the one centre. Asked ;what~Ais 'intentions" now were in the matter '■Mr. Mackenzie said it was too early to.make a definite statement yet as he-had.not had:'an opportunity of going 'thoroughly l into-th'e matter with' Mr. Cuddie? '■ s . .-... - In concluding Mr. Mackenzie said he . wished to .express his appreciation of the publicity the press had given-to the exposure of the Moumahaki letter-writing episode. The .criticisms that had-been published had done harm in a direction which ■ the public would not have anticipated, but which ho would explain later. .