PASTURES AND PRODUCTS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 February 1939, Page 6 (Supplement)

PASTURES AND PRODUCTS

OBSERVATIONS BY THE MEMBER FOR WAIRARAPA

Permanent Values in Farming

PRESTIGE OF GOOD DISTRICT

It gives me very great pleasure to pen you a few lines in connection with your special Show number. The Masterton and Wairarapa showshave already occupied a very important place in the centre of a large and fertile farming community. Some of the best sheep, cattle and dairy stock to be found anywhere are exhibited at these shows drawn from the Wairarapa pastures and the performance and quality of such stock reflects the wonderful pastures we possess and the ability of the breeders’ art of mating and maintaining those qualities which mqclern agriculture and a fastidious public demand. A year or two ago, many people had the opinion that our shows had“lost their punch” and ability to create that interest which was necessary to success, and which was the special prerogative of agriculture. All things ebb and flow, and shows

are no exception. The creation °f Yoting Farmers’ Clubs has brought into being a new cycle of intensive application of farming practice. which will have a tremendously valuable effect on the industry in the future.

Agriculture, like life itself, is an evolutionary process, and we have to see that our motto is "To make the better —best." First, we had the pioneer with axe and firestick, next came the long-handled shovel for draining, and the stump jack for clearing. Today, the modern farmer studies pasture management, herd-testing, breeding, (md disease control. So that the "New Age" demands “New mep,” with New Ideas to meet the consumers’ demand for grade and quality, and to maintain his position in the markets of the world against all competitors. There is one aspect of farming that I would like to see developed during the next 20 years and that is a greater sense of permanency of agriculture in all its branches, bringing with it all those higher values of character and citizenship which can hardly be produced in the city, and which are the product of the countryside. Good homes, good gardens, and recreation facilities, culture —not book learning, but an appreciation of nature

with all its chemistry and mystery, a recognition of the true value of farm work, that it is just as honourable and serviceable to milk a cow, as to work in a garage, or in the civil service. A contented mind, and observant eye. and an understanding intuition. How did all the great ideas come to us. which constitute thp sheet anchor of the farming of today? The icleas of Booth and Bakewell, and Mendel's laws of breeding? How did the plant wizard Luther Burbank give to posterity his valuable creations? By contemplating and investigating the mysteries of Nature. There is a rich field of lasting value coming to the farmer and his family when he seeks the permanent values of farming; and it is those permanent values which will most surely maintain the Wairarapa’s prestige as a good farming district.

Signed, BEN ROBERTS, Member for Wairarapa