MAKING A FARMER

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 53, Issue 32404, 8 March 1944, Page 3

MAKING A FARMER

SPIRIT OF WILLINGNESS ADDRESS AT MASSEY COLLEGE “ There is’ no need for you young fellows to get downhearted at the prospect of never having a farm of your own. If a young man is progressive and willing to learn, there will always be some farmers or others ready to help him financially,” declared Mr Alex Stuart, a wellknown farmer of Marton, when recently showing over his farm a group of students from Massey Agricultural College.

A warning against trying to put into practice the varying advice given ■by all farmers was issued by Mr Stuart, who compared such an attempt to back all the horses in any one race. Farming, he sa.id, could never be entirely an exact science, and farm practices would have to vary with the type of soil, stock and climate. He urged the students when setting up farms of their Qwn, to overcome any doubts by following the advice and practice of any one successful farmer in the district.

As an example of how perseverance could win through, Mr Stuart quoted his own case and that of Ml’ 0. A. Bergen, who at the moment was operating his header harvester with a 12-foot cut in Mr Stuart’s 45-bushel crop of Tainui wheat. Both- men, equipped with nothing but the will to win, came to the Marton district, nearly 50- years ago, looking for work. Mr -Stuart, who at one time was one of the largest wheat-growers in the Rangitikei district, has made his properties of 1265 acres into really high producing units; while Mi* Bergen attends to his ewn handy-sized farm as well as doing contract work with heavy machinery.