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Report on Farm Economic Research. A. Farm, Costing-service. In order to obtain, an accurate knowledge of farm costs and returns on the various types of farms, it was decided last year to inaugurate a farm costing-service at Lincoln College. During the year nine farms have been completely costed, and less detailed information has been collected on six other farms, enabling the compilation of monetary accounts only for these latter farms. The intention is to extend the work of farm costing to a great many farms, compiling more detailed cost accounts on a few farms selected as being typical of the average farm of that class, and compiling less detailed accounts alone on some hundreds of other farms. The method of costing is as follows : — (i) The farmer signifies his intention of keeping the necessary diary record. (ii) The farmer is visited by the costing officer, and (a) a complete inventory of quantity and value of all land, buildings, implements, stock, feed, seed, and manure, cultivations, &c., 011 hand at the beginning of the costing year made ; (6) a rough sketch is made of the farm, each paddock is numbered, and the area and present and proposed crop in each paddock set down ; (c) a diary is supplied, in which the farmer is required to set down daily full details of work done, shiftings of stock, materials or implements used, and all farm receipts and expenses. Details of interest payments, household and private expenses, are not required for the farm costing-accounts, but their inclusion enables a balancing of the accounts with the bank or stock agency account. (iii) Monthly, quarterly, or half-yearly each farmer is visited, the diary collected, and a duplicate diary supplied. The accounts are then compiled to date. (iv) At the end of the year the farmer is again visited, and a closing inventory of all land, stock, plant, &c., on hand at the end of the book-keeping year made. At the wish of the farmer, a new diary is supplied for the following year's accounts. (v) The accounts are then compiled. Each farmer is handed back a report showing (a) the net improvement in the financial position for the year, and the gross or net profit obtained from each branch of the farm ; (b) the net profit, the interest earned on the capital invested, and the actual producing value of the land for the year considered ; (c) a brief summary of the year's operations, pointing out where returns are above or below the average, which branch of the farm proved most profitable, and which branch required readjusting. Just as herd-testing has assisted and stimulated production on one branch of the farm —viz., dairy production—so it is anticipated from the experience already obtained, that this method of " farm testing " or " farm costing " will assist and stimulate production on the whole farm. An extension of the farm costing-work has been recommended by the Farmers 1 Research (Advisory) Committee recently established in Canterbury. B. Other Farm Economic Research. (1) Farm Costs.—Arising out of the data obtained from the farm accounts, reports showing the cost of horse labour and tractor labour, the relative profitableness of various crops and of live-stock in Canterbury, have been compiled. A report on the cost of harvesting wheat by use o| the present large mill, the " tin " mill, the windrower and header, and the direct header, has been prepared, and is the subject of a report to the Wheat Research Institute. (2) Farm-management. —A suggested normal diary of operations and normal receipts and expenses to be expected off the light Canterbury Plain land selling fat lambs, and cast for age, breeding-ewes only, has been compiled, and the effect of various deviations from, this type of management on the farm returns studied. (3) General Farm Economics. —Notes on each agricultural industry, endeavouring to show the stage in the production cycle reached by each industry, the recent effects of increased or diminished production or consumption abroad on production in New Zealand, and the immediate ends at which production in New Zealand should aim are being compiled. RESEARCH SCHOLARSHIPS. Four National Research Scholarships, of an annual value of £180, plus £25 additional for books and apparatus, are available each year. The present holders of these scholarships and the researches upon which they are respectively engaged are as follows : — Name. Research undertaken. R. I. Nicholson, Otago University .. (1) Action of Methylating Agents on Phenylhydrazones ; (2) The Chemistry of Tuten (active principle of native tutu). E. W. Hullett, Canterbury College .. Chemistry of Ragwort. Dr. R. S. Allan, Otago University .. Geology. T. H. McCombs, Canterbury College . . The Essential Oils of Exotic Species of Pines grown in New Zealand. (Extension for three months.) IMPERIAL AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH BUREAUX. During the year the Dominion organization making for provision for co-operation in the Imperial Agricultural Research Bureaux scheme was completed with the appointment of local correspondents for the nine bureaux which were set up as the result of the Imperial Agricultural Research Conference of 1927. The actual work of the bureaux has been actively taken up by the local correspondents, who have forwarded particulars of the investigations proceeding in their respective spheres, together with surveys of the position in regard to the investigations proposed by the Imperial organization in so far as New Zealand was concerned.