ROYAL FARMERS.

Putaruru Press, Volume IV, Issue 115, 7 January 1926, Page 5

ROYAL FARMERS.

LONG STANDING TRADITION. His Majesty, the King, carries on the tradition of royal interest in agriculture. ‘ i Farmer George ’ ' perhaps contributed little to the advance of the industry, for “ Georgy,’' as he was known on his Windsor farms, was no scientific pioneer, and his effort to popularise a diet of barley-water, boiled mutton, and turnips in society does not seem to have been very successful. Nor was his uncle of Cumberland much of a reformer. * ‘ His method," it is carefully recorded, ‘ 1 with his labourers was that of never giving them higher wages than what others of a like condition received from their employers. He rather chose to give less than the nobility and gentry of the neighbourhood, in order that no improper advantage might be taken bv other labourers to raise their wages." But we reach firmer ground with the Prince Consort, yhose passion for science ranged over agriculture, and, however unpopular he may have been in society, his “We farmers —" established a pleasant connection with the agricultural community. And he and his son made the “model farm" fashionable. King Edward said once: “If I have not always been successful in the path of competition, I have at least obtained prizes sufficient to encourage me to persevere." But his best contribution to agriculture was the constant repetition of his theory that “A landlord ought always to feel a pride in haying the working classes properly housed on his estate." Once, indeed, he took the occasion of a visit to Ireland to read a lecture to absentee landlords on this text.