FARMING RESEARCH

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 157, 21 July 1937, Page 13

FARMING RESEARCH

Minister's Statement of Policy ASSISTING AGRICULTURE

An outline of the Government's plans for agricultural research, with particular reference to its mothod of co-ordinating the worii of departments, was given by the Minister in charge of Scientific and Industrial Research, the Hon. D. G. Sullivan, when he offlcially opened at Lincoln, the new agronomy division buildings of the Plant K'esearch Bureau, and in his address raade a detailed statement of the Government 's intentions in the " field of research. Bcientific research, instruetion, and practice should go hand in hand, the Minister liaid, and there should be as little delay «s possible in applying in practice the results of research. ' ' This building is a manifestation," the Minister said, "of the Government's determination to assist our agricultural industries in every possible way, particularly by providing the fullest possible f'acilities for research ani, its application, without which their pioblems cannot be solved. This occasion will be looked upon as a landmark in. the history of agricultural development in New Zealand. The very location of the building is hn outward ex> pression of a policy that there should be as little delay as possible in applying the results of agricultural research in practice, and that scientific research, instruction, and practice sh-ould advance hand in hand. "When our Government took offiee, the Minister for Agriculture, the Hon. W. Lee Martin, and myseif were faced With the prdblem of co-ordinating and organising agricultural research into an effective scheme/ permitting freedom of initiativg and thought on the part of specialist officers, and at the same time affording effective co-opera-tion with the real needs of the farming industry, the educational services of our colleges, and the instructional n-nd regulatory functions of the Department of Agriculture. Careful Thought "The problem needed very careful thought in order that a sound organlsation might be founded, flexible onough to meet and concentrate on the ever-changing problems as they anse, and yet adequate to cover the whole field. Thus we should havo not only the organisation and machinery to deal witli season-to-soason difflculties, . but we should also be able tu pursue a broad policy aiming at a higher standard of living for all those concerned in agriculture, by minimising all hazards due to fluetuations of seasons, of prices, and all those conditions which make agricultural occupation so uncertain. Oi course, we cannot control the weather, but at least wo have so strengthened the meteorolcgical services that much improved i'orccasts are given so that operationn can be better planned. "We then divided the research problems into three main divisions, soils, crops, and animals. We organised the soil surveys so that they were linked luore eii'ectively with the crops and pastures, and associated with the soil and with the problems of farm management and farm practice. These surveys are now proeeeding in several parts of the country, and I hope that before long wo -shall, in co-opera-tion with Canterbury Agricultural College and the Department of Agriculture, be able to start on a comprehen sive survey of Canterbury. "Next we had to consider the even mere impo'rtant problems of what may }>e called plant research, the investigations relating to crops and pastures to be grown on the soil. Apart from mtegrating the research, educational and instructional service, we had £he problem of location of our research conlres for this work. After all, we are a small country, and we could not dissipate our efforts too much by estab' lishing small units all over the country. nor did it seem sound to concentrate all our laboratories in one central spot, mspite of the advantages of koeping .specialist workers together. Stations Distributed "We decided on a distribution of research stations round existing centres of higher education and research — Canterbury Agricultural College, Cuwthron Institute, Massey College — in such a way also that the main problems to be undertaken at each centr© nad a regional relation to the actual agricultural problems of the general district. Thus in our plant research uei ivities the main research centre for I'he problems of farm crops or agronomy are to be dealt with at this instKution. ' "It is true that the problems of pasluics are common to the whole L'o1minien and general arrangements have been made accordingly, but this oeeboii of the Plant Research Bureau is designed to deal specifically with all those problems of selection, breediug and disease of the whole gamut ot .arm crops, and we are fortunate in having a man of the character and eapacity of .-Mr J. W. Hadfield to take charge of this section of the work. "The establishment of this research station was only decided on after caretu! thought and planmng. It is an jndlcation that the Government is d«.ermiued to provide, through Tcsearcn j xi t,o crop problems, very real assjstance to the cropping famers of £ho Oominion. Although this division is xoi ated in Canterbury, this is not to be tegarded as indicating that itt» spnere is limited to this province. With the intensificatiou and diversiflcation of farming and the' greater utiiisation of the Bominion'a land resources, which the Government is fijixious to sce, so that1 our rural population will be far greater thau it. is at present, this division will have an important role to play in promoting ar.y desirable extension of cropping to other distriets. However, as Canterbury is the centre of the Pominion'R main cropping lands, the location oi Ihe division at Lincoln is very appropriate, for there is much that can be done at its very doors.