FARMING THERE AND HERE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 912, 1 February 1957, Page 9

FARMING THERE AND HERE

DISTINGUISHED delegate to the International Grasslands Congress recently held at Massey College was Professor M. M. Cooper, a former New Zealand Rhodes Scholar who is now Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture at Durham University, England. An authority on grasslands, Professor Cooper, who fas spoken several times on the BBC, has recorded two talks for the NZBS Farm Session. The second of these will be heard from 2YA on February 4, and later they will be heard from other stations. In his first talk Professor Cooper describes the expansion of British agriculture since the war. His first post in England was at Wye Agricultural College, where he tried to apply those principles of New Zealand agriculture which he considered sound. After describing his results he goes on to mention such topics as the English subsidy system and the effect on farming efficiency of many of the present outmoded farm buildings. The second talk gives his impressions of, the New Zealand scene after an absence of 10 years. The most striking changes he considered were the development of the pumice country on the central piateau and the growth of aerial topdressing. He ends with a warning about New Zealand’s agricultural economy which at present relies almost exclusively on pastoral products-wool, fat lambs and dairy produce. As world competi-: tion in the meat market becomes keener he considers that some time in the future we may have to develop a more balanced type of husbandry which will include the growing of far more wheat than at present.