SCIENCE OF FARMING

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 836, 3 December 1929, Page 10

SCIENCE OF FARMING

NEW BUILDING FOR MASSEY COLLEGE

LAYING OF FOUNDATIONS

Although founded originally j„ an atmosphere of political con. troversy, the Massey Agricultural College at Palmerston North i, now a smooth working scientific machine. promising immense benefits for future agricultural and pastoral production.

The foundation stone of the new buildings will be laid tomorrow. When complete this structure will relieve the congestion which is now hampering the full development of the college's work.

The advantages of the Massey Agricultural College are manifold. lt s j O . ftuence will be more than Dominion, wide. First it is established at a time when full use may be made of the experience of other countries in agn cultural experiments; secondly it j 5 situated upon country which embraces a variety of soil and provides a wide field of operation, and thirdly, i t! location is as conveniently close to the centre of the North Island as it ij possible to imagine. In the short span of IS months—the college was open in March of hut year—the institution has justified its belated beginning. From a small Man the roll number has increased rapidly, and whereas in the first year there were So students, the total list no* numbers ITS. Pending tbe erection of the permanent college buildings, work has been going on in the old McHardy homestead on the property at Palmerston North, rooms having been improvised for laboratories and for lecture talk, and outhouses also being called into commission. During last year an up-to-date dairy factory was erected there, and this is already proving a valuable factor in the experimental and practical wort of the institution. On the farm itself a large number of purebred stock is carried, and upon the 110 acres under cropping there is a wide variety of forage and roots normal to the North Island. These: are used for the practical education of students, and experiments are conducted also in plant cultivation, in flax growing, and in fact in almost every useful branch of agricultural and pastoral work. The college is thoroughly representative of the North Island, incorporating as it does the interests in the Sir Walter Buchanan Chair of Agriculture, donated to Victoria College, Wellington, in 1923, and the chair of agriculture established at the Auckland University College in 1924 through the generosity of Sir John Logan Campbell. In 1926 it was given university status. The board comprises two representatives from each university college, four Government nominees, and one from the Council of Agriculture. Sir George Fowlds, of Auckland, who bus worked incessantly for many yean for the establishment of an institution such as this, has been the chairman of the board since its inception in 1927.

EXPANSION RETARDED Accommodation alone threatens to hamper the expansion of the Massev Agricultural College. In his latest report, the principal. Professor G. S. Peren, formerly of Auckland, says that the college has grown at a phenomenal rate, students have in number far exceeded the anticipations of the college authorities, and the provision of suitable accommodation has seriously lagged behind an otherwise excellent record. Tomorrow’s function will mark > definite step toward overcoming this disadvantage. The contract price for the main building is £96.500. Of this amount the Aucklaud University College has found about £20,000, mainly through the bequest of Sir John Logan Campbell, and £IO,OOO has been provided by Victoria College. The remainder is being furnished by the Government. The farm property itself was contributed to largely by the Palmerston North Borough Council, which purchased part of the McHardy estate for £IO,OOO as a gift to the college. The new buildings will be spacious and elaborately equipped for laboratory work, for lectures, and for t.ie general work of the college. Its design is fashioned largely as the result of investigations abroad, and i-s purpose is utilitarian rather than aesthetic. When it is complete, tne Massey Agricultural College, which is also associated the Dairy research Institute (V.Z.). w-ill have a worthy home in which to develop 1 - incalculable potentialities.