TO GROW WEALTH

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2833, 26 July 1916, Page 10

TO GROW WEALTH

CHANGES URGED BETTER RURAL EDUCATION ADVOCATED Highly interesting references to rural education were uuuie by Sir James Wilson yesterday in the course of an address to the Dominion Conference of tho New Zealand. Farmers' Union.

"The union," he said, "has ever had an ideal for better fanning and better living for all engaged ,on the farm, and more, vocational'education. Let us all continue to strive for such and help forward the ideal of so educating the young people in the country as to make life in the country more attractive and better understood. I would not be doing justice to the Education Boards of the Dominion were,l not to say that nil are desirous of doing what they can in this direction, and some, have been enthusiastic in furthering our objective. In Taranaki'the: farmers there aro so impressed by the necessity of working in conjunction with the boards that they have subscribed,- .1 think, v£IOOP, to assist in the good work, and it is well • spent money,which will-be repaid a hundred-, fold,- even in monetary advantage to .themselves.. I.hope their example will be followed in alt the school: districts. Probably it would.be better to do thia through the local bodies, out of rates, as it would ensure a continuous payment, instead of relying upon voluntary contributions.. The county'' councils*'nave the power to contribute out of their funds for the purpose in the district in which they reside.

"Do we not want research and investigation, the teachers. and the demonstrators? I think wo do; and will it not, if we are receptive enough, enable us to prouuee more from the land, and, therefore, restore to our Dominion our lost weal.th ?' We may be ou the fringe of discovery of the great mystery, of the soil that has heen previously a closed book to us, which we could not read. Look at those mysterious bacteria which are working in myriads for us, which, until a few years ago, we knew not of. Already some of the.mystery has been solved. We know now how we can treat the soil so as,to kill by heat those which live on the beneficial bacteria, those ceaseless workers for our benefit. Although not commercially profitable in general farming, already this truth is being used with the best results to sterilise the soil in glasshouse culture.-Who can say whether in a few years the same process may not be working on ordinary farms? ■ .

"In the Agricultural Department we have now- a number of trained men who have the capacity at anj-rate for the investigation of many problems by which we would be benefited, if solved. What do we do with them? We, shut thehi ■. np in offices in Wellington to answer correspondence and at-tend-to dotailii which ' aii-.-i-t hi well left to clerics. They pUvl.I bo on a farm where they would bo closel> allied- to nature instead of "poring over' miserable books." Mr. Brown, the other day, in a paper he read before thb Agricultural Council, hinted at audi a change. 1 ■ The Director, his Agriculturist; Horticulturist, and Plant Breeder, the Biologist, the Chemist; and a Bacteriologist (to work out the problems ill'connection with. dairymg)/should nil .bo stationed on a central farm. They would bo training assistants who eventually would act. as demonstrators. These.demonstrations could be given in hundreds of places all over the Dominion at verv small expense and with much-greater benefit than expensive experimental farms in one or two localities. Take, the question of lucerne. I have not ..the slightest doubt, if the farmers were ask, ed, that 50 in the South Island would easily bo found to allow llio land for" (in experiment of iU growth, and tho teams to do the work, it the Department could «upply the trained men to supervise, the farmer to -have the produce. Would not' this be of greater value to farming generally, than one exhibition on an cippriinental fftrm. in a locality and 'climate perhaps.quite different from that of the rest of the:provincej where a few farmers in the neighbourhood would go and see it while it was growing? i J ossibly if the growth of lucerne wero gonoral, tho land might keep another million sheep, or at any rate solve the difficulty'dairy people have in isuni. mer to keep the flow of milk up, and ; it might easily mean the export of another half-million pounds worth of -butter, and encese. Again, the use of lime.'is re. ceiving much attention, and in some localities it has shown splendid results, but it is not possible to dogmatise'.from' one or two results. ''■■•; - '

"We have got the men, let us urge that they be given the opportunity. We have the farmland all we waiit is lionsing accommodation, a laboratory, a hall, etc If necessary, a portion of the land, if sold, as Mr. Brown suggested, would pay for all the necessary expense. The work of a plant-breeder, in New South Wales, viz., Fnrrar, who worked away by himself without any notice or advertising, resulted in .him turning out wheats that were calculated to increase the. yield, in Australia to the amount of half a million sterling in one year. The Marquis wheat bred at Ottawa Government Farm, by its early ripening, brought into the wheat-growing area in Canada a widis belt ol country which before could not grow wheat because of its short summer.

"From a central farm the whole of our experimental work and demonstrations could be. worked, supervised by men appointed under the Director in the various districts, and their work inspected by him from time to time."