AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENTS IN BRITAIN

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 13, Issue 9, 18 October 1948, Page 5

AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENTS IN BRITAIN

Interesting Talk To Rotarians Agricultural developments in Britain, with special reference to the influence of the war, were r. discussed by Mr W. Dreghorn in a very interesting address to the Whakatane Chamber of Commerce on Thursday evening. British farming, he claimed, is now the most mechanised in the world. Golden age of British agriculture, he said, was the 1860-1370 period, and up to 1900 there was a steady increase in the amount of arable land. After that, because of increasing competition from the newer lands of Canada, Australasia and Argentine, there was a steady decrease in the amount of arable land and a consequent steady rise in the acreage under permanent grass. Farmers concentrated on milk production and relied a great deal on imported foodstuffs. Naturally, that meant a decrease in the acreage used for grain and 'root crops. However, the war had afrested that trend, and in the post-war land pattern there was a balance between arable land, permanent pasture, rough grazing, woodlands, orchards and market gardens. The need for bread had 'caused the reextension of wheat cultivation all over Britain. It was ,now proved, Mr Dreghorn said, that land under the plough was more adaptable to man’s needs. Humans could not -eat grass which, in pre-war years, had been the most important crop in Britain. But both people and animals could eat root crops. Therefore farmers were growing more potatoes, turnips, swedes and various grains, thus securing a greater yield of fodder crops to replace imported feding stuffs, for summer and winter use and for storage. There was now, Mr Dreghorn said, a “plough up” campaign sweeping Britain, with farmers concentrating on wheat and milk production. There was also increased use of land for producing sugar beet crops. Over there the farmer had learned to rely on the machine and to use the minimum of labour. With 100,000 tractors in use in 1942 compared with half that number in 1938, there had been an enormous increase in the area of cultivated land. Balanced mixed farming was now the dominant type of land usage. Modern British agriculture was an intensive form of fai’ming, with cropping and other farming practices arranged to give the maximum production * from reiatiyely small acreages.