MAKING FARMERS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 146, 15 March 1919, Page 10

MAKING FARMERS

SOLDIERS AND ROTORUA 1 PRACTICAL INSTRUCTION The Auckland correspondent of The ° Dominion, who .recently visited the State Experimental Farm at Ruakura (near l. Hamilton), writes:— d A new. building is. being erected at Ruakura Stato Farm to provide house - accommodation for about thirty returned ' soldiers, who will be given the necessary instruction to enable them to settle upon •the land with good hope of success. The soldier cadets will havo a Teal friend in the manager (Mr. Green), who is convinced that there is no place in New Zealand inore suitable than Ruakura for training soldiers for life on the land, j The new building has beei) i carefully planned with the object of ensuring both health and comfort for the students. It is conveniently and pleasantly situated, and is likely to be fully occupied with rotorned soldiers for some years to come. The instruction they will receive will bo mainly practical, but theory will not ■ bo entijely neglected. Theory must • always have a place -in scientific teaching. 2 Students must be taught not only what E j to do, but why they should do it, and [ j. why one method is better than another, fi Almost every branch, of farming can t be learned at Ruakura. The soldier ' student will be ablo to make a rational ' ■choice of the branch, that suits him ! best. He may begin his course of in--1 lilniction with the idea, of adopting one department pi agriculture, and , find by ' experience tnafc he has made a mistake. | He can then turn his attention to some ' other and more congenial • department in | which he will have "an -opportunity of : becoming "efficient before he leaves Ruakura. It is only by practical experi- •' unce that an inexperienced man can find | out what his natural bent is. It is not- ■ an uncommon thing for a cadet to begin 1 at bees and end at the 1 piggeries, or to 1 try his band first at dairying and to > cliaago to horticulture. One returned } soldier who started work among the cows 1 came to., the manager after a week or | two had passed, and said: "Boss, I'vo 1 had enough of .dairying ]for my natural. Give us a trial at something else." Ho ' then turned-his. attention to horticulture, ■ which "he found much more to his liking, and in his new sphere ho showed every - promise of'success. In whatever do--1 partment a cadet finally chooses lie will :be taught thoroughly and -scientifically, ■and when-lie leaves the institution he , will knownow to do his work in the best 1 waj\ The soldiers who make good use of their time at .Ruakura should be in a positiou to make a comfortablo living for 1 themselves," and should help to raise the general standard of farming throughout ; the Dominion.While Mr. Green was showing a party 1 of visitors over the Ruakura farm a fow days aofo.. someone asked whether tho institution paid its way. Mr. Green contended with much force that it would be just as reasonable to expect a State school or a university to pay. An agricultural/ experiment that fails cannot bring any revenue to the farm, but it may bo very profitable to the Stnte by Showing hundreds of. farmers what not to do; and a successful experiment may mean ,an increase in the productiveness of hundreds of thousands of acres. This is how a well-managed experimental farm may be .-made to pay and pay handsomely even though its own balance-sheet may show an actual loss. A lighthouse does not pay in the narrow senso of the word, but from the bigger and broader national point of view it repays its upkeep many r times ov*r by preventing the loss of life and properrtv. An experimental farm, .•ike a lighthouse, points to tho right J' a s'- also bars the road that lends to failure. It is engaged in scientific , | research of a directly utilitarian kind.