CHIEF INSPECTOR OF STOCK

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2147, 24 March 1908, Page 2

CHIEF INSPECTOR OF STOCK

OFFICIAL VISIT TO GISBORNE. Mr. E. Clifton, Chief Inspector of Stock in the Department of Agriculture, is on a visit- to Gisborne on business connected with his work. _ Yesterday ho drove out to Patutalii, and intends to stay in the district until to-morrow, when he will leave by the Victoria- for Napier. In a chat with a “Times” reporter last evening, Mr Clifton said this was liis first visit to Gisborne since liis appointment as Chief Inspector, and that he had not been in the district for many years. Ho was greatly pleased with what lie had seen, and was confident- of the prospects of the district. On his drive out to Patutahi he saw some beautiful laud,-.equal to anything in the Dominion, and it was his opinion that Gisborne was unfortunate in not having been connected with Auckland and Wellington by rail, so that farmers in other parts could see the quality of the land here. The flats were, in liis opinion, the ideal dairying land of New Zealand, and he was surprised that Poverty Bay farmers did not go in more for dairying than at- present, ho being confident that dairying would pay well if properly carried out. EXPERIMENTAL FARMS. Mr. Clifton said that- the experimental farms in different parts of the .Dominion were doing excellent work, and it was the intention of the Government to make cliem more educational in the future than they had been in the past. New quarters for a number of cadets were being erected at the Ruakura experimental farm, near Hamilton, a number of lads would ho drawn from all over New Zealand; and he hoped to have some applications from Gisborne. The cadets will undergo a thorough training, both by practical work and by a course of lectures, and provision will he made to transfer them from one experimental farm to another so as to teach them farming under all conditions, on good and only moderate soils, and to turn them out as farmers possessed of a 'knowledge of all branches of tlieir work. A dairy school is also being built at Palmerston North on land given to the Department as an endowment, the school building to be erected upon tlic Manawatu Agricultural and Pastoral Association’s show ground. The work there will be divided into two divisions, that of ordinary dairying and of dairying research. The work of the first department will consist of instruction m the best methods of conducting dairy farms, the cure and treatment of cows and milk, and the most up-to-date process of butter and cheese-making. The research department will undertake instruction in more abstruse questions,_sueli as the chemistry and bacteriology of butter and cheese, and the training of experts. DAIRY EXPERTS. “Tlit- AgriculturalDepartment,’’coin-tit-i<-d Mr Clifton, “is at present- undertaking the training of a number of dairy inspectors in Wellington. Continuous classes are being held, the stock inspectors of the department having facilities afforded them to join. These classes are confined, at present, to officers of the department, the object- being to give them a complete training in all branches of agriculture. Although the instruction is, so far. of a primary nature, it is fairly comprehensive, and besides demonstrations, includes lectures upon general farm sanitation, the recognition of the different diseases to which stock are liable, and tlie best means c-f coping with such outbreaks, veterinary instruction, and the best means for safeguarding a pure milk supply, both lor family consumption and factory purposes. Hie officers who will be appointed to act as supervisors

oi or factory supplies, will act as advisors and directors of what should be clone, rather than undertake inspection on lines of coercion.” THE RABBIT PEST. “The rabbit pest is likely to be a little trouble on tbo East Coast ” con tinned Mr. Clifton. “Already thev aro advancing from the sandhills near Opotiki, where they have been for some time, and they aro also making they way from Galatea and Taupo over a largo extent of country. The Department has a number of men at work in various places doing all they can to keep them down, and .it is hoped to keep them from invading the Poverty Bay farms, if not to ex-, terminate them altogether.” In many cases, Mr. Clifton said, tho post was spread by peoplo who had rabbits as pets, and allowed them to escape, when they breed quickly’ and spread over new country in a very short time. In tho Napier district a number of men were coping with tho pest under direction from the Hawke’s Bay Rabbit Board, and were doing excellent work. Between this area and Poverty Bay there aro largo areas of private Crown, and native lands, which aro becoming infected, and tho Department’s men were being assisted in their work by men put on by a number of private owners. One great difficulty is that the country is very rough and broken, and the haunts of the rodents were difficult to get at, but with this advantage, that while the bush was on the land, little or no advancement would be made by them, the rabbits making greater headway when land was cleared. “However,” Mr. Clifton continued, the settlers can feel assured that the Government is alive to tho danger of the nuisance, and will use every effort to cope with continued, “the settlers can feel as-