ASSISTING THE FARMER.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9114, 13 June 1908, Page 5

ASSISTING THE FARMER.

AGRICULTURAL DEPARTMENTS| EFFORTS. BY TKLiGliAI'it —PRESS ASSOCIA.TION. ASHBURTON, June 12. The Winter Show opened to-day, when there were record entries. .One jf the chief features was the vxhibit by the Agricultural Heparin ent. The Hon. R. McNab, Minister "f Lands, performed the op> nirg ceremony. He si.iti that he hoped that if Parliament would give the necessary financial as-i-tance the principle of making extensive exhibits by the Agricultural Department would be generally extended to country Shows, when it would be seen that even firstclass farmers had much to learn from the scientist and his laboratory. 'l\ u > farmer must turn out produce which would stand supreme abovp that of all competitor*. For that he had to have knowledge that could not be acquired within the ring fence of the farm. The farmer required to call science tn his assistance, and unless scientific men could be brought to this country and put under the control of the head of the Department of Agriculture, that knowledge could not be made available for them. Unless the Government of the country brought these scientists to the doors of the people of New Zealand, their assistance could not be obtained at all. The Department of Agriculture was but in its infancy,and it would have to grow. They showed that day materials grown on the experimental farm. They wapted men who could put these lessons in concrete form for the benefit of farmers. £BO out of every £IOO worth of exports from the Dominion came from farmer:?, and only £2O out of every £IOO from r.ll other industries, trades and occupation?. He was not able to tell them where the experimental farms of the future would be located, but he was in a position to say that they hoped to have, within a few years, such a system <f experimental farms that the work done in connection with them would be a duplicate of all agii cultural work done in New Zealand. Whether an experimental farm would be placed in the Ashburton district was a question for the department's expert. The Minister was banqueted in the evening, when there was a large and representative attendance.