THE HARVEST IN BRITAIN

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 234, 6 November 1940, Page 2

THE HARVEST IN BRITAIN

ONE OF THE BEST REAPED IN TIIE MEMORY OF MAN PROVIDING FOR NEXT YEAR The harvest of 1940 in Britain has been one of the earliest and best-gathered in the memory of man. says the Spectator, London. Ihe crop, showed no better than moderate, taken all round —the wheat above average, the oats very much below. But such as it was, over large parts of the south, at any rate, it has now all been stacked, in first-class condition and with a minimum of labour lor the larmers. The result is that (given moderate rain in a not too distant future) they should be able to make an unusually early start with next 3 r ear's crops; and after ijloughing. their stubbles and sowing under the best conditions their winter wheat, winter oats and ryegrass, they should have a much better chance than last vear to expand their areas of arable land. To this expansion the Ministry of Agriculture and its county agricultural committees must now bend their energies anew. The last autumn, winter and spring presented extraordinary difficulties for a ploughing-in policy, and the amount achieved did not bring the country's arable land back even to the acreage of 1911. We ought now boldly to aim at that of 1918.