FARMING PROSPECTS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 414, 24 December 1932, Page 5

FARMING PROSPECTS

(Prens. Assji. —

PROFESSOR OPTIMISTIC OF RESTORATION OF PROSPERITY IMPORTANCE OF ABILITY

By Telegraph — Copyrlght;.

Dannevirke, Dee. 22. Farming as a profession was diseussed by Professor G. S. Peren, prineipal of Massey Agricultural College, during the course of a speech he made at the "break-up" ceremony at the Dannevirke High School. Careful organisation and attention to detail, he said, would become just as important and essential to agriculture as they were to the secondary industries. Professor Peren said that in view of the present difficulties of the farmers it might be tliought that farming did not offer very much in the way of opportunities. "Don't be misled," he said, "by the assumption that successful farming is a thing of the past. You can take it for granted, on the other hand, that from a period of unavoidable economic adjustments there will emerge a set of conditions which will allow farming to be carried .out once more on a paying hasis. This is no idle prophecy. The. necessary adjustments, however painful they may be, will take place automatically, as the nation must ive and pay its way, and has no alternative but to live on farming. Sound Basis "Ultimately we shall get back on to a basis whieh will permit an industrious and hardworking farmer to make a good living out of his pro'fession. "As a result of the present de~ pression, and also in view of the fairly mature stage of land development which we have now reaehed, we shall almost certainly see a steady improvement in the standard of our farming in the f uture. The days when big money could be made out of raising land values have passed; they represent a phase in the lives of all new countries. Henceforth profits will be g-overned by ability to farm well. A sound knowledge of the prineiples of the management of stoek and of arable farming will be essential. "Careful organisation and attention to detail will beeome just as important as they are in secondary industries. They are, of course, practised to-day by all our best farmers, but they will have to be more generally adopted in the future. One can see the increasing c.omj^etition coming from Australia, the Argentine, and even South Afriea, and it should be perfectly clear that the combinatidn of circumstances will force us to work all the time for an improvement in the quality of our produce. "We have done well in this respect in the past with one glaring exception; our crossbred wool is very far from what it ought to he and could be. We mitst frankly admit that we have paid more attention to filling the bale than to quality. Many of us are now paying the penalty."