The Taihape Daily Times FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 15th, 1916. AN EXPERIMENTAL FARM DEAL.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 160, 15 September 1916, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 15th, 1916. AN EXPERIMENTAL FARM DEAL.

AMD W ATM APING ADVOCATE (With which is incorporated The Tni bapw Post and Waimarino News.)

| The recently-appointed Board of Agriculture seems to have justified its creation by a tour of Government experimental farms. The Board came j into existence for the purpose of adj vj sing the Government on matters i concerning the development of agri- . culture, but the nature of the work it j has accomplished up to the present is j likely t 0 be viewed with some suspic|ion by thoSe w ho have reaped considi erable useful knowledge from visits to | one or other of these experimental i farms. A long report has been subj raitted to the Government, the refrain |of which is “sell the farms,” but as j that course would probably be resented, the Board has recommended the Government to sell as much as possible. For instance, the Weraroa Farm of 800 acres should be partitioned three hundred acres retained and five hundred acres sold. Now, most people who understand farming will know that such a course would largely curtail the experimental work carried on there, but the Board dees not say what Part of the work they think should be cut out. Their main object seems to be the raising of money. The Board says, if our recommendations are carried out. something like fifty thousand pounds will be realised. The proposal is to sell 383 acres of the 583 acres at M ora aha ki; they recommend that the Arataki (Hawke’s Bay) farm of to acres should he sold, am? yet thov

urge that laud, should be available in that locality for grass experiments. The Weraroa Farm, they say, is of excellent quality, but they would sell 400 acres, at least, as it would probably fetch from £6O to £65 an acre. They propose whittling farms in the North Island to the extent of about 1000 acres and spending the whole of the money in buying two 200 acre farms (400 acres) in the South Island. Now that seems to us a very bad business proposition for the people of this coun try, although it may provide something (good for the lucky men who have the two 200 acre farms in the South Islam: to sell to the Government. A thousand acres are to be sacrificed in the North Island that four hundred may be bought in the South Island. Of course, some outlay would be necessary for equipment, but that should not absorb the whole value of five or six hundred acres, say at £6O an acre. The Board states the profit on the transactions they recommend lies in the increased production which results from investigation. It disclaims any wish to criticise past mistakes, which

is obviously shirking an important duty,' but it states the objective and policy of these farms has never been laid down, and the change of Minisers with varying views have left much for criticism. Apparently the Board would limit criticism by leavinjg less to criticise. The Board’s idea of profitable conduct does not appeal to us in quite the optimistic light they sec it in. They have altogether refrained from telling us how much will be saved, for instance, In working the 300 acres at Weraroa after 500 or so acres have been sold. We know that a large area at Weraroa is devoted to dairying experiments and tests, and we know that some very useful work has been done there in this connection. Weraroa is in a district where contigu ous lands are of a poor and dry character, lands reaching from Waikanae to Poxton and further, and most valuable experiments in connection therewith have been conducted. Can farming and dairying' experiments still be carried on effectively on the small i area proposed to be left for the purpose, or does the Board intend to commence something altogether new? If not, what class of experiments do they recommend shall be dropped? This is

information the: people are fully entitled to before -they should consent to these farms being .mutilated out of an recognition. Where will the profitable conduct of the experimental work come in? At Weraroa a cow-herd, or a dairymaid or-two- may be dispensed with, but the hijgher costs of management and working would continue, and by a multiplication of these farms in the South island 'at the expense of the North there does not appear to be any possibility of more profitable working. Members of the Board undoubtedly know a lot about farming, but it is most extraordinary that when a body of experts become a Government institution their individual business proclivities and astuteness disappears and another kind of astuteness J takes their place. What farmer would sell a thousand acres of land in the

North Island worth £6O an acre and spend all the money in buying two farms of 200 acres each in the South Island? We are at one with the Board when it reproaches the Government for selling part of the Te Kauwhata farm at a price that has not been payable, but we really cannot see that it proposes anything' better. True, if £6O an acre is forthcoming for land they recommend should be sold, the selling part is all right from a value point of view, but they straightway earmark every penny of the money for two 200 acre farms in the South Island, which seems to us disastrous as a business proposition. If the pro-

posal is good and businesslike, enougn has not been published, and before discussing the question further it will perhaps be advisable to wait till tne full report is available. If there are any stray 200 acre experimental farm® going about we can make one exceedingly profitable in the highland territory of which Taihape is the most important centre. The first year of the existence of such a farm here would satisfy even our Minister of Lands that we have very many thousands of acres of first class land that could be cut up for closer settlement. If it did nothing else it would be well worth while.