NEW ZEALAND AHEAD OF SCOTLAND

Shannon News, 29 October 1926, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND AHEAD OF SCOTLAND

* INTERESTING COMPARISON BY OTAGO FARMER. "New Zealand is not the only place that would be suitable for a to. start farming-; Canada ha's •"wonderful opportunities .for any man Avho 'wishes to take "on sheepgrazing," stated Mr William ToAvnley to a reporter yesterday. Mr ToAynley has just returned from a visit to his native land, Scotland, and ien route spent some time in Canada. He is spending a couple of days with his nephew, Mr A. J. Townley ,of Palmerston North, before returning to Stirling, Otago, where ho resumes active farming in ' which he has been engaged for 56 years. Mr Townley expressed surprise, mingled with regret, at the lack of enterprise in Scotland. In Stranraer, South Scotland, the place of his birth, Mr Townley found that things Avero practically the same as Avhen he was there some 60 years ago as a youth. This observant Scot found that new countries such as Canada and New Zealand were quick to take advantage of any up-to-date invention. Ncav Zealand was certainly ahead Avhen it came to hydro-electric works and had left Scotland well in the rear still nursing and bolstering up the. old custorqs and superstitions of their grandfathers. New Zealand Behind in Harvesting. -"I Avas particularly interested in the harvesting methods on the plains of Canada," stated the visitor, "and I must say that the. average New Zcalander is behind the Canadian AA'heat-groAver." He was loud in his praise of their methods, particularly eulogising ■ the threshing outfits, which caught and held his attention, deeming them the iast word in harvesting and much ahead of any method that he had seen adopted in the Old Country or New Zealand.

Surprise was expressed at the few sheep that were raised in Western Canada. The hilly country was, ho contended, excellent' land for the grazing of hardy breeds of sheep. "It's all very well for them to say that the winter is too much for the sheep because the snow is a few inches deep, but there are places in New Zealand where the conditions are just as bad, yet out here weget good sheep from off that sort of land." Mr Townley explained that apparently there were huge tracts of land not under ' cultivation which were well adapted to sheep-raising, but he believed that in time the Canadians would make good use of that land. Apparently it was an easy matter to grow cereals on the plains and the farmers were reluctant to leave this class of production to take on another.