Rangitikei Advocate. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1908. EDITORIAL NOTES.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIII, Issue 9070, 10 February 1908, Page 4

Rangitikei Advocate. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1908. EDITORIAL NOTES.

THE average farmer of course knows much more about; farming matters than the average editor of a newspaper. Themed itor of the Taranaki Herald, however, has rushed in where the ordinary journalist fears to thread. He doubtless considers that as nearly every man believes he can edit a newspaper bettor than the man who is doing it, so an editor may assume that he knows all about farming. At any rata he takes exception to a statement made by a speaker at a recent gathering to the effect that there was not much room for development in our occupied country which is already producing well up to its capacity. The editor alleges that scientifically worked, the average land might be made to jiroduce twice as muohasHt does and give proportionately better retuurs to the farmers. By “sicentific working” we do not mean working on the lines of an agricultural college or an experimental farm, but just common-sense farming which every farmer understands. One of the most successful farmers of Taranaki used to say that the secret of success was to keep the plough going. Every farmer knows it, but only the few practice it sufficiently. Keeping the plough going implies the provision of ample supplies of winter feed and the frequent renewal of pastures. Experience teaches that the cost of winter feed for dairy cattle is repaid over and over again by the increased yield of butter fat in the ensuing season, while the frequent renewal of pastures gives two blades of grass where one grew before, and more succulent grass at that. One need not travel very far in Taranaki to find thousands of acres of worn-out pastures, growim? more weeds than nourishing grasses. By a system of small paddocks and keeping the plough going it is an easy matter to have small areas of maize coming on from the end of January into the autumn, and thus the milk supply would bo kept up much later than is usual. By free use of the plough and fertilisers the amount of feed the land will produce is increased

two or three-fold. Ten pounds invested in good, fertilisers,, judiciously applied, will- return the farmer twenty or thirty pounds. The farmers know all this, and we would not presume to attempt to teacix them their business, but they are often so fully engaged in milking that they are apt to overlook or put off till another time what is obviously the proper thing to do.” After pointing Aucklanders are becoming dependent upon Taranaki for meat supplies, and urging that efforts should be made to send fat sheep or lambs, ho continues: — “It is a positive benefit to a dairy farm to keep some sheep on it, following the cows in their round of pastures, and we feel certain that nearly every farm is capable of carrying a sheep, say a breeding ewe, for every cow it is_carrying, without decreasing the number of [the latter, except perhaps for one season. That, however, is a detail. We only wish to point out a direction in which farmers may add to their incomes and to the carrying capacity of their farms. The chief difficulty in the way, we have been told, is the initial expense of sheep-proof subdividing fences; but surely most farmers are in a position to manage that somehow ; the certain return is worth the effort anyhow.' Much more might he said in the same but we must conclude with just putting it to our farming friends whether they cannot see a probability of better returns for their labour by devoting a part of time now taken tip by the wearisome task of milking cows which yield £5 or £6 worth of butter-fat in the season to improving their pastures, providing winter feed, to other branches of farming. By this means, it seems to us, they would be all [,the time improving their farms instead of impoverishing them.” Wo commend the remarks to the perusal of farmers, hut may point out that the day for intense cultivation of the laud has not yet arrived. For one thing, labour is too high- priced and is likely to become higher, so that the wise farmer will probably cultivate as little as possible till the clouds have rolled by.

THE Premier appears to consider that it is sufficient defence of the conduct of Ministers in rushing all over the country, to allege that they do tills because the people like to see them. But, of course, the reason why they are welcomed is because of the belief that they will bring some gift. Any politician who may believe that ho is popular for personal reasons need only reflect on the fact that although a prominent leader has been dead but a comparatively short time his name is now seldom heard, and though very shortly after, his death an appeal was made to the public it was so poorly responded to as to compel the party to ask Parliament to vote the money to pay for a monument. Then again, the question arises whether Ministers should be allowed to use the imblic funds for the purpose of promoting their popularity in certain localities. It is obvious that, in strict justice to all, the money taken from the pockets of the people should be allocated fairly and without regard to the political interests of any party. Writing on this subject the Wairarapa Daily Times makes some remarks with which we heartily agree. It says:—“Hew Zealand Ministers of the Crown a handsome income, a residence and a commodious office, and expects them to do certain work. They do it after a fashion, but very little of them, excepting their coat-tails, is seen in the city of Wellington, which is the post "at which they are placed. They are ever, one and all, flying about the Dominion, and only feel at,home in a steamboat cabin, a railway carriage, or at an up-country hotel. Their work is performed intermittently, and sheaves of telegrams follow them about from frantic under-secretaries. All this is not for the good of the public, but for their own personal popularity and prestige. . . Half-a-dozen Ministers, if they stuck to their offices, can do the work they are paid to do, easily and readily. If, on the other hand, they want in person to do all the work which local bodies ought to perform, and to supersede elected representatives of the people in their proper duties, then they ought to carry out an idea once suggested by Punch—viz., a Minister of the Crown doing his real work at his own office, and a dummy duplicate of him receiving deputations, attending public banquets, and generally doing the ornamental work that the real Minister, if he attends to his proper duties, has no leisure for. First class comedians might be engaged as dummy Ministers, and do the peregrinating business for them. ’ ’

THE report that; Nikola Tesla, the celebrated electrician, proposes to send an eight hundred million horsepower message to Mars, has caused the Rev. P. W. Fair-dough, wellknown as an to discuss this fascinating subject in the Press. He regards the story as a “gigantic hoax,” and from his reasoning it appears altogether improbable that our day and generation will be able to “bid the time of day” to our neighbours across space. Some time ago it was suggested that geometrical figui-es should be employed, but Mr Pairclough points out that to draw Euclid’s 47th proposition, cf Book 1, on such a scale

that it would be seen on Mars, would require 750,000 miles of this eartlds' territory. A later’suggestion was to flash signals to Mars by turning vast areas of light on and off in some regular fashion, but the area required for this experiment is estimated at 1500 square miles, with very costly electrical appliances; the signalling' to be repeated over and over again to a planet which may or may not he inhabited. After admitting the possibility of such a force producing a ticking on Mars similar to that produced by wireless telegraphy on this planet, provided that Mars has a receiving instrument —which is a serious proviso—he goes on to say:—The defect of all these proposals is that they are aimed, not only at rational beings, but at rational beings with great telescopes and wireless 'telegraphy. The Martians might have signalled by these methods in the days of Solomon or of Socrates, or of the Ohaldoean and Greek astronomers. They might have signalled 300 years ago, when Bacon and Shakespeare wore alive. Would this failure to attract attention have proved that there were no rational beings on this planet? The practical side of Tesla’s scheme asks a word. To accomplish its 'purpose the signals would have to be kept up a long time. Of the fifty million horse-power of Niagara about one per cent is harnessed. Hence enormous storage would be necessary. How long can Mr Tesla keep it up?” But half a century ago talking to people hundreds of miles distant would have been regarded as impossible, while the man who alleged that this could be done even without wires or other artificial connection /[would have been laughed at as a visionary.