BETTER FARMING

Hokitika Guardian, 7 November 1929, Page 8

BETTER FARMING

TASMANIAN AiETiTO I>S

LESSONS LEARNT IN NEW ZEa DAjND.

Pastures, with clovers, and the density ol stuck, were me two outstanding features seen by the Tasmanian farmers during their tour of the Dunuiiion. "As a result of the tour, we can look lonvard to the rate <n exchange in Tasmania being speedup up, and a fresu realisation or ti.e possibilities of that vStaite,” said Ah v. E. uones, of the Tasmanian Department of Agriculture, who acted as agricultural adviser to the party of Tasmanian farmers who nave jusw completed the tour. fc-oine three years ago, Mr Gillies explained, an investigation of Taslin.aia's economic position was made by a Federal Commission. Their hr,si leeonnnenuation was that the primary industries of the State should be placed on a sounder footing. They recommended a loan to Tasmania 1 roe of interest to enable the State to put the Federal recommendation into effect. These were, firstly, the development of self-help in the. farming community, and the scientific direction of their activities through a reorganised Department of Agriculture. The producers of the State were organised into an agricultural bureau, an organisation of producers to lie the medium through which the selfhelp was to develop. The movement, proceeded Air Gillies, had grown extensively in the last three 1 years, and now comprised some 3000 members, whose chief objects were to develop schemes for marketing primary products, chiefly by co-opeinLive means. V ( TASMAN lAN SYSTEM. “So far as the Tasmanian Department of Agriculture is concerned,” said Mr Gillies, “there are seven or eight New Zealanders on the staff, whose experience and training were of advantage in meeting the conditions found in Tasmania. The organisation of the Tasmanian Department of Agriculture differs from that of the other Australian States, and New Zealand. It consists of an investigating and technical service, whose duty it is to examine the facts of the primary industries, and make recommendations for their improve- | ment. The extension or teaching service, consisting of a superintend- j ent and six district agricultural or- 1 ganisers, is responsible for seeing that these recommendations are got across to the fanner, and that the agricultural community are led to adopt the new and improved practices which are recommended.”

The methods employed by this extensive service, explained Air Gillies, were based on psychologically sound teaching methods, and the success of the work had shown clearly that the farming community, as any other body, could be led to change their accustomed line of action if the right method of approach was used. In Tasmania there was a very great need for the adoption of known standard and improved practices, and thro problem of improving the primary industries was largely a matter of the success or otherwise of the teaching methods.

IMPRESSING THE FARMER. "In New Zealand, as in Tasmania,” continued Mr Gillies, "the problem is really how to get the farmer to adopt already known improved practices. The research work, loth in Australia and overseas, is considerably in advance of the methods employed on the farms. Indications have been given that the next development in agricultural improvement will he the more extensive use of efficient teaching methods in agricultural work. Tile organisation of an extensive service in Tasmania has demonstrated the usefulness and ef-

fectivonoss of this system in carrying inhumation from the research worker to the farmer. It has been found very necessary to use the specialised teaching officer, as the investigator seldom or ever has the outlook necessary to make him a successful teacher or extension worker.”

DEVELOPING A WIDER OUTDOOR.

The organisation of a party of Tasmanian fanners to tour Now Zealand, continued Air Gillies, was undertaken primarily to develop in the party, who were mostly young fanners, a wider outlook, and show them tho possibilities in their own country for development. 111 general terms, one might describe the system, 88 per o,ent. of crops being sold off the farm altogether. Insufficient recovery crops, like .clover and other fodders, were grown to keep the land in heart. New Zealand, declared Air Gillies, had demonstrated most successfully to the party a system of farming—viz., live-stock farming—which not only kept the land in good heart, but produced commodities for which there was a good demand in the world’s markets.

The party ,of Tasmanian fanners left Auckland hv the Ulimaroa having spent eighteen days in (New 'Zeala.nd, during which time representative farming districts were visited. a.s .well as some of the Dominion’s scenic resorts:

Air Gillies, prior to joining the Tasmanian Agricultural Department three years ago, was agricultural science master at the Timaru High School.