A FARM COMPETITION.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 1969, 3 January 1907, Page 1

A FARM COMPETITION.

Trio first of :i most iiiUirosthii} sorios ol farm. coniputiLions has just been decided ifi-Now South Wales. Koine tinur ago tlio proprietors ot tho Sydney Morning Herald, moved apparently by a patriotic desire to prove that tlio Now South Wales former does not necessarily confine himself to growing sheep, offered five sets of prizes for tho throe host farms in five divisions cf tho State, tho prizes being £50," £lO, and £5. A oomrnittoo of management was sot up to organise and carry out tho competitions, and 'practical exports were appointed to act as judges. In tho case of the 'fan iOatitije. in the “Southern tableland” division, tho result of which has''just been made known,- the three judges divided the district into three sections, and one judge, accompanied b.v a steward, inspected each farm in bis allotted district that was entered for competition,' finally selecting four i for final judgment. Tho three judges together then made a careful and minute insiyetion of the twelve farms thus selected out of the n.Mcty-six competitors. Tlio test was a. severo olio, points being awarded for general management; fencing and gates; water supply; dwelling and steading, including garden, orchard and stock yards; live stork breeds, and suitability to district; cultivation—crops, provisions for storing, supplying fodder ; plant—including all implements, machines and means for carrying produce to market; and situation and. general plan of improvements. Tho maximum number of points in each case was one hundred, or 800 in all, and the winning farm, owned and worked by two brothers at Cowra, scored 701 points. Tho farm consists of 320 acres, and was bought in an almost unimproved condition for £4 an aero some twelve or thirteen years ago by the present owners, who came from Victoria seeking land. There were many local predictions that the venture would be a failure, but the brothers evidently knew wliat they wore doing, and for years the annual

net reinrn from_t.be farm is said ' > have been surprisingly large. The committee of management' were especially desirous that the prizes should not be won by “show” places, run for the owner’s pleasure, but for farmers who wore working their land at a profit. The judges made cnctuiries

on this point in each case, and wore gratified to find that the greater number of the farms entered for competition “were typical of thousands which are carrying farmers and their families in comfortable and steadily improving circumstances.” The judges themselves, experts as tli?v were in the matter, were astonished at. the evidence afforded them of the solid character of the farming industry in New South Wales. The ramshackle makeshifts which characterise the farms worked by Steele Rudd’s creations, and other farmers to be met with in Australian fiction, are evidently not the rule. “We visited.” say the judges, “scores of well and tastefuly improved holdings. The houses are well built and comfortable, .the steading in many cases ample, and the plant up-to-date and in good order.' The farmers " and their families aro intelligent, alert, and industrious',' and the home-life is as a rule made attractive for the young people. . . We were much interested 111 the many small labor-saving devices and economical methods shown by tile best farmers, who had profited vastly by their reading an experience and by keeping vigilant eves on the operations of their neighbors.” And they again emphasise the point that the best farms in the competition were really typical of the general avorage of the farms in the division. r i he value of the competitions is undoubted, for besides encouraging im~ pi o ved farm pra et ice t h e.v 'm us t open the eyes of many to the possibilities of agriculture in New South Wales, and thus promote the closer settlement which is the aim of-every Australian Government. There should bo room in New Zealand for similar competitions.—Press.