GATHERING FACTS FOR FARMERS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 15, Issue 381, 11 October 1946, Page 7

GATHERING FACTS FOR FARMERS

BBC Expert’s Far-ranging Mission

class knowledge of farm practice in English-speaking countries, J. D. F. Green, BBC liaison officer-which in this case means director of the farm services-is now in New Zealand on the last leg of a long trip. When we interviewed him early this year at Auckland, he told us that his investigation of New Zealand conditions would follow a visit to Australia. Now he has seen something of our agricultural methods, and when we talked with him again the other day in Wellington he was able to make comparisons with methods in other countries. He told us that radio was playing a large part in service for farmers in England, Canada, and the United States; on his return to Britain he will be able to extend the BBC’s farming services further, for he has gathered much information about farming practice generally, and costs of production. Ta equip himself with a first-

Mr. Green said that; from what he had seen, he believed the New Zealand farmer to be the most effective farmer in the world. But it was largely the climate that made him so. "Because of our winter the English farmer. cannot be so effective, yet he can still learn something from the methods which climatic conditions in New Zealand allow. For example, we have to provide shelter'in Britain, but there is no need to lock up as much capital as we do in farm buildings that would be more suitable for churches and government offices than for storing fodder and keeping live stock.

A Hint from Australia "I find that the New Zealand farmer milks twice as many cows, and looks after twice ds many sheep as the farmer in England. And that is principally a matter of tradition. Many of our_practices are not essential, but an equal number really are essential. You might think we have nothing to learn from Australia, but it would be an education for any British farmer to visit that country. He can’t get any perspective, remaining at home, of the capital that has to be maintained in Britain to keep water off the land, until he has seen the struggles of Australia to get water on to it. But there are few countries in the world that are not faced with the problem of growing plants either in a bog or in a desert." We asked Mr. Green what he had seen in other countries during his tour-in Cangda, for instance. There, he said, the British farmer could learn something about the economic use of farm buildings and the win‘ter handling of fodder, because the Canadian, again, had a long and bitter winter to contend with. "But all the New World farmers haye to learn from Britain the principles of sound husbandry. What we call ‘farming to quit’ is a universal fault in the New World. That is a phrase used about a bad tenant who takes all he can out of the land, while intending to give his landlord notice,

And so soil fertility must suffer from ‘extractive’ methods with no regard for the generations to come." "Are not extractive methods used almost everywhere?" "There is no phase of agriculture in the New World that has not had its counterpart in some period in Britain. For example there is the transition from pastoral . farming to closer settlement. The problem of closer settlement, to enable the industrial revolution to proceed and great cities to arise, can only be understood fully by a close study of the lives of thé great improvers of the 19th Century." "Would you say that

New Zealand farmers : should visit Britain for experience?" Farmers’ Mecca "Yes, and I would say that I wish every young New Zealand farmer could have. the opportunity to go to Holkham, the home of Coke of Norfolk, the great land_reclaimer and improver during the Napoleonic wars. Farmers need not merely. to be technically competent to hold their own in the modern world; they also have a moral responsibility for the soil which is not shared in the same degree by other members of the community. A respect for history and a humane attitude to the land should also be an essential part of a farmer’s education." "In what specific ways can broadcasting help farming?" Mr. Green answered our question by saying that he had gone to the BBC 11 years ago, to build up the agricultural and horticultural services. "In the last five years," he said, "radio had played (in addition to the service -it gives to farmers) an increasing part in technical @ducation through the use of broadcasting for discussion groups. I can say, too, that I was amazed at the enormous. use made of broadcasting in extension’ work in Canada and the United States of America. "It is not only a question of the use made by qualified experts and extension officers to spread their knowledge, . but the use also that can be made by discussions among the farmers themselves. Actually, the successful farmer is less jealous of his secrets than any other member of the commercial fraternity. But it is surprising how long useful hints,on sound farm practice take beforé they really produce an. effect." Then we asked Mr. Green to tell us something about his own particular mission,

The main object of his long journey, he said, was not specifically to arrange broadcasts while away from home, or to talk himself.when he returns. Rather he is looking into the background of farming so that farm talks in England can be accurately supplied when requested by the Dominions’ broadcasting services, He is also anxious to see to what extent recordings by farmers of the Dominions can be used in the Home Service programmes. This, he said, would be interesting in so far as it related to farme ing practice and costs of production. Mr. Green admitted that he was anxious to see what British farmers were up against, because the BBC. realised that it had a heavy responsibility not to mislead the farmers of Britain in the coming years by painting false prospects. And his eye is not shut to the greater opportunities that might exist for British farmers (particularly the younger men) overseas. Except in dairying, the farmers of Britain were overe crowded, he said, and sound managers often had insufficient scope. Now he is nearing the end of his tour which, summed up, has meant an investigation into how far an opportunity exists for the exchange of news of primary production in English-speaking countries, and how far broadcasting can be extended in agricultural education. "I must confess," he said, "that I am appalled at how little I saw in Ause tralia and how. long it took me to see it, but the compactness of New Zealand will make this part of the*tour much easier." Mr, Green is a neighbour ef Lord Bledisloe, in Gloucestershire, and a breeder of Dairy Shorthorn. cattle, and Oxford Down sheep. While in Wellington he gave a talk over the main National and Commercial statiors,.