The Significance of Mr. Richard Buckley’s Exploding Trousers: Reflections on an Aspect of Technological Change in New Zealand Dairy Farming between the World Wars

Abstract

Abstract During the early 1930s many New Zealand farmers enthusiastically adopted the highly inflammable chemical sodium chlorate as a weedicide against ragwort. This development reflected many aspects of New Zealand farming at the time. Dairying was expanding rapidly, reducing the control of ragwort by grazing with sheep; large areas of land cleared in the post-war boom were reverting to weeds; farmers tended to look to the state to assist with their problems and the Department of Agriculture promoted the use of sodium chlorate; farmers were generally highly literate and were rapidly aware of new possibilities; and there was a continuing shortage of labor in farming. The latter reflected New Zealand’s generally restrictive immigration policies; higher wages and greater freedom in urban employment; changing demography and attitudes to child labor; attitudes to married women working out on the farm; and, perhaps most importantly, the widespread drive for independence from farm workers and neighbors. Sodium chlorate seemed to promise a solution to the control of ragwort without the high financial and personal cost of finding additional labor.