AN AMERICAN

Te Puke Times, Volume II, Issue II, 9 December 1913, Page 3

AN AMERICAN

VISITS RUAKURA STATE

FARM.

• Mr O'Neil Seivier, one of a v party of four of the United States Commissioners, ■ who are visiting Australasia in the interests of the Panama-Pacific Exposition to be held in 1915. paid a visit to the . Ruakura State Farm of Instruc--1 tion, where he was the guest of Mr Primrose WConnell. When asked his opinion .of the . "••'■■■■ work carried on at the Farm, IVr Sevier said I think the farm is one of the most complete, in- • structive, and practical, as well 1 as the most scientific I have ever ; seen. Mr MtjConnell's work on 'f naturally broken lands is fine. ' > The 'results of these experiments mean that there will be an increased yield on what is now ' available by means of commercial fertilisers,' as we in the States call your manures. In explanation, Mr Sevier said . 1 that the only manure so-called in America was the natural excreta • .of animals, all other ' was called 'commercial fertilisers.' He saw at, Ruakura some remarkable demonstrations of the production • ' of 1 oats and crops other than •grasses grown on artificial pastures ; but the lesson he had gathered from th.e farm was that ' -the ;pastoral system generally in 'vogue Was ivery; wasteful onei. • •' Asked to explain this, Mr Sevies said .that what he meant was that the country generally carried but a sheep and a half to the „ ' acre, whereas 60 or 70 lambs could be carried by systematic growing of rape and mustard if conducted on the lines set down by the farm. The intense ; cultivation practised in America ; .-was not generally carried out in s New Zealand., Fertilising meant h everything to rough and infertile lands, and the beginning of such fertilising was the turning in of i green crops. Ruakura, in the * * visitor's opinion, compared with , any farm in the world. He had seen where 100 bushels of. oats ' was yielded to the acre, whereas the general average all the world , .over was 35 to 40 bushels, thus , showing what was due to systematic selection and cultivation. 'In comparing New Zealand methods with those of the States,; Mr Sevier said that the movement for advanced farming in America was gigantic. Systematic methods were taught in agricultural colleges and universities, and thousands of young men were turned out annually ' skilled in the rotation of green 4 crops, and other modern agricultural processes much on the same lines as he saw at Ruakura. Anything that had been done here was entirely due to the system of * manuring, and if district farmers will only take the trouble v. "to inform themselves on modern ' methods, they could apply them to meet all cases. The natural stubbornness of farmers, and lie expected it-was txnirienced in New Zealand as well as in other lands, did much to clog their progress. In many or most cases the, farmers simply would not learn. Happily ' that day was passing, because if civilisation had' gone along on the old basis in • all other departments they would know nothing about steam ■»" or electricity. They would still be * • using oxen for the plough instead i of the advanced type of shire J[ horses, or, as was now coming v into use, steam. . The educational advantages of Ruakura caused Mr Sevier to become enthusiastic. He considered ' that every farmer should send his sons to Ruakura for at least two weeks' a year, in order to learn by observation what advantages there are in modern agricultural science over the old methods that are now fast becoming more and mora obsolete."