The Press Friday, November 21, 1930. Farming in Britain.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20091, 21 November 1930, Page 10

The Press Friday, November 21, 1930. Farming in Britain.

The cable message printed yesterday about the British Government's Agricultural Land Bill was interesting, but not very hopeful. Although all Parties agree now that agriculture should mean more to the country than it does —especially that more than seven per cent, of the population should be engaged in cultivating the land—no Party or Government has been successful in effecting a change. The Editor of the Countryman, Mr J. W. Robertson Scott, in a series of special articles written for the Observer, has discussed the problem very fully. Stating what in his opinion is required to rescue British farming from complete decay, he expresses his disapproval of a general policy of agricultural protection. He believes that the country must be aa ready now, in a crisis in the national fortunes, to consider new ideas and to take long views, as it was iu tiie Great War; and that the problem of the unfair competition of foreign food supplies with British production can be solved only by all political Parties acting together. Marketing organisation must be improved, and the system of tenure be revised so as to serve, not personal advantage, but the needs of agriculture and the nation. The land must be tnore economically worked, and access to it be facilitated. M • Robertson Scott ask.- for a Rent Act to prevent any Unfair rise of rents against the farmer, depriving him of advantages which the State and his own efforts may give him. The schools are to play their part by cultivating the intelligence and character required to enable a farmer to do well. " The "problem of our agriculture," adds Mr Robertson Scott, " must be pondered " all the time not as the problem of ■' an industry but as national prob- " lem. Need it be said that the " notion of an Agrarian Party is " absurd f' The interests of the town and country are one. The town wants fresh food: the country can supply it. What we want for the solution of the rural problem is not an Agrarian Party attack, but an All-Party attack. Men well acquainted with land believe, on evidence that cannot be gainsaid, that there is no industry which, under wise guidance, is capable of more remarkable development and expansion, with the greatest benefit to the nation at large, than the agricultural industry. But wise guidance means taking a longer view than most people care to take or seem able to take. "... It is certain that unless we recognise quite clearly that we have come to a time of national emergency we might as well reconcile ourselves to saying good-bye to a British agriculture that counts. •The politicians have done much and probably will do more for the British farmer; but there is a great deal which the British farmer might reasonably be j expected to do for himself, especially in the matter of marketing. For it is j certainly rather surprising that the Danish and Dominion plans of cooperation are not better understood and more widely applied by the primary producers of Britain.