The Sun 42 Wyndham Street, Auckland, N.Z. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30, 1937. DAIRY BOARD’S PLIGHT

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 7, 30 March 1927, Page 8

The Sun 42 Wyndham Street, Auckland, N.Z. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30, 1937. DAIRY BOARD’S PLIGHT

kb TER knocking the Dairy Produce Export Control Beard *1 down and kicking it, some of its most ruthless assailants are now the first to urge the battered organisation to get up and do something for the producers. It is not surprising that the board feels sore about its treatment and seeks to expose the political interference and the hostile propaganda which have driven it into a sorry plight. Recriminations may be left to futile conferences of ii*reconcilabie opponents of the board. After all, the facts of the board’s failure in its major operations to date are simple: in attempting to save a great deal of the annual ransom that New Zealand producers have had to pay to mercantile speculators overseas, the board raised all the forces of the so-called free trade in butter, became stampeded by the astute opposition, and made a gift of an additional £IOO,OOO to Tooley Street merchants. The miserable situation calls for commiseration rather than for bristling condemnation. Perhaps it was a rash and hazardous enterprise for an immature board to attempt the elimination of a marketing system which deprives the producer of much of his economic reward for his labour, but the effort was made in the interests of the dairy farmers and not for a commercial clique. It may be conceded at least that, if the board has been stupid, it has not played for its own hand. And nothing more really need be said about it. The question claiming national consideration to-day concerns the future policy of the Control Board. Fifty thousand dairy farmers want a definite answer without delay, and most of the Dominion’s prosperity depends upon the nature of the response. It may be taken for granted that the control policy as originally conceived and so disastrously practised can now never be carried out. A new objective will have to be sought, and other means devised so that the vital interests of producers may be promoted on the best lines of business administration and entirely without mischievous political interference. Outside propaganda must be accepted as inevitable and fought rigorously in the open by every legitimate means, but greater care should be taken in the future to safeguard the board against the “ white ants ” within its own organisation. It is certain that an overwhelming majority of the producers still desirc-s to see the board function, though many of the great number may be opposed at the moment to compulsory control. It would be a grievous outlook for the future of the industry if it is to be thrown again to the mercy of commercial wolves. What the board should do first is to declare its revised policy and seek the full confidence of the butter industry. SCIENCE AND PRODUCTIVITY GREATER than the Napoleons of war, greater than conquerors vdio add new territories to empires, are the quiet scientists of agriculture, shrinking from the headlines of publicity, who are engaged in seeking to increase the earth’s production—“ to make two blades of grass grow where only one grew before.” The guns of war may thunder, but they go their peaceful ways, ever experimenting in the interests of all mfen —while scientists of another bent are busy inventing frightful machines by which man may more efficiently kill his fellow man. Follow the fascinating story of wheat, the chief food of mankind. They were growing wheat in one-time peaceful China, where, emulating the example of the white man, they are now warring, 3,000 years before the Christian era. Wheat was the main crop of the ancient Egyptians, and, marvellous to relate, grain discovered in the tombs of the kings thousands of years after it was placed there was found to have retained its fertility and to give yield when planted. Up to the end of the 18tli century the wheat grown in the United Kingdom did not differ perceptibly from the wheat of the ancient Egyptians, raised 4,000 years before. Then Slierriff, a Scottish farmer, began to plant seed from selected ears and opened the way to scientific investigation and the marvels of cross-fertilisation. He was followed by Colonel Hallet, the Garton Brothers, Professors Biffen and Percival, Farrer, of Australian fame, who enormously increased the Australian yield, and by a host of other patient and skilled investigators, all of whom did much to benefit mankind by causing the earth to give more profusely of its sustenance. What has been done for wheat and other cereals may be done in regard to grasses, and when the relation of grass to butter is considered, the immense importance of these investigations to New Zealand is easily apparent. Just now the Department of Agriculture and Scientific and Industrial Research is undertaking an investigation regarding the nutritive value of pastures, this work having the support of the Empire Marketing Board and the aid of the Cawthron Institute. Imagine the increased wealth of this country if science can replace all our poor pastures with good grass, or double the growth of rich grass on good soils! The agricultural chemist is far on the road to knowing his job, and he is the scientist to whom the world looks to do the greatest good for the greatest number. For it is surely better to grow two blades of grass where only one grew before, than to devise guns to decimate armies and to leave standing only one man where two stood before.