NEW FARMING ERA IN BRITAIN

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3038, 27 March 1917, Page 8

NEW FARMING ERA IN BRITAIN

STATE-AIDED AGRICULTURE

GOVERNMENT'S POLICY DECLARED air. H'. li, Prothero, President of Ihe Boaid of 'Agriculture, in a recent Address to a meeting of tho Federation of Agricultural War Committees, at tho - .. Middlesex Guildhall, outlined the agri- , cultural policy of the Government. "We are," said Mr. Prothero, "a, beleaguered city, and wo must aot under • .-the full consciousness-of that fact. The s|War Agricultural Committees liave already done admirable work, but' we mean to ask them to do a great deal ■ more." .They might have noticed an ■ apparent conflict of duties between- the . Food, Qontroller-and hilnself. He had ■ met Lord Devonport and put down tho • i short lines defining their mutual du- - : "ties, and ho was absolutely satisfied ■ " iwtth the result. "I am quite sure," he went on to say, "that I have got a *: free hand, and at the samo time that " we shall gain for agriculture all the . onormous advantages of the wide pow- : era which _tho Food Controller has in - dealing with that Department of tho 'Stato." The Federation had no idea of in- : fringing on tho duties of the County Council. "The reason wo have not,'so • '.much food at tho present time is that wo are not making tho best use of all the land. - That is tho point I want -• to put my finger on. The first thing to do is to find out what-land there is. •• in the country that is. either derelict ■or insufficiently cultivated. Many a farmer has got more land .that ho can work profitably. It is not his fault. . ;We must get that land cultivated, and .. cultivated -to tho_ filllest possible ex- • tent. We are going to supply every ... county war agricultural committee with •i a- list of the products that we believe • from, our knowledge of the whole posi- . • tion to be most essential to the safety and welfare of tho nation, bearing'in mind always that we are a beleaguered city. Crowing the Essentials. • "We- are to give you what we think ■ to be the amount of produce and the Mtind of produce we specially want you to. grow. We oannot have precious . land growing things which are not essen r tial. .We cannot have too much ~- land .growing, for 'instance, mustard and chrysanthemums. Bread and ■ meat are more important thaii either. I We want tho War Agricultural Com- . .mittees to see this thing carried througli. This is a. farmer's job. How . can the Board of Agriculture, with its „ comparatively limited knowledge of o."vh i . locality, say how you are to grow this . produce? We appeal to you.with absolute certainty that you will respond to the appeal to do your very utmost •to carry out. what we propose. Wo ■ liqpe to be able to give you assisfance, clerical assistants, surveyors, "and valuers, and all assistance-tJiat is required to get out this first step, which • is a survey of the land' in each county

which can. be utilised to tho bosfc profit/. You urill hp able to plan out tho county in districts and appoint in each district a small'committee to work out the local details as to tho land available and inako a survey. If you set to work at onco you ought to do it within a fortnight. I very much hopo no man who can afford to work voluntarily in this matter will refuse to do it. Wo propose to givo you wide power to enter upon, occupy, cultivate, and put in the seeds that wo want grown on the land, which youi yourselves admit to bo, insufficiently oultivatcd, or not cultivated at all.

Compulsory Power. "We /mean you to have compulsory power —but I need not say to you you will do it on your own. Wherever you can get in a bargain with i man, do it, but behind that you have tho driving force of compulsory power. In this compulsory power should be included this clausc —a.clauso that no fiirmcr shall bo. liable to a fine for breach of covenant, if ho ploughs up grass land. (Hear, hear.) We are going to fix contract prices. Thero is to be no fiddling about maximum and minimum. We are going to say that your crops shall be sold at certain pricos. _ I should fail in my duty to the nation if I fixed a prico, which gave you pleasure, but I hope it will satisfy you. It will be a price which will givo you a reasonable profit, and it .ia a- prico at which the'food in this country, as wo hope with other 'measures, will he kept at a steady level. The contract price we~ propose to fix for wheat is 60s. It isnot a matter of a maximum or a minimum price. That is the price. If it goes above that prico you will be the losers; if it goes below the Government is tho loser:" ' Oats, Potatoes, and Barley. As to' oats and potatoes, Mr. Piot-hero 6aid ' this was rather more puzzling, as bo did not know at present tho prico of seed, but tho prico for those two products would bo fixed and would be announced publicly within tho ns,xiLfortnight. With regard to barley, he had not yet made up his mind what he would do about it. They must not expect if they did fix a contract price for barley that tho exceptional barley prices at the prosent moment would be continued.. Barley would fall, as usual, between wheat and oats. With regard to growing barley for tho brewer, 1 he was not going into the question of drink, but ho thought tho public did not quite understand that- the brewer not only brewed beer, but he produced milk. If they had not got the brewer's grain they could not send the milk iii the quantities they nouLdid to the big towns. They had got to get right down to tho cottage garden. With regard to potatoes, they had already stopped the consumption of seed potatoes—that was the eatable consumption.

They liad sent out iiotico to the War Aiioulfcural Committees to find out in each village h<>w many men. could grow pototoes and how wanted. They would have to limit potatoes. They had sot some financial assistance from the Treasury, hut at tho present they wero insisting'on cash with tho order. He thought that would not do. It ivnnld spoil the ship for a halfpennyworth of tar. Credit Against Crop. What he wanted'was to arrange a system of credit against crop. Another thing they wanted was to revive pig keeping. They were receiving assistance from* the Rural League_and the 'Agricultural Co-operative Society, and both bodies were at the disposal of the committees for working out the schcme. As regards oats and potatoes, Mr. Prothero said, the board would do their best to see thai seeds were procurable and at a reasonable price, and an organisation would'be set up in London of which he fould he chairman, and agricultural men would be put upon it. Anv War Agricultural Committee who had got any difficulty could apply to that committee, who would see how it could be solved. 1 "We shall give you the best assistance. We shall be able to buy your potatoes on much better terms than individual Agricultural War Committees buying against each other all over the country. It is my sincere conviction that victory or defeat in this great war in which we are engaged may he, won on the cornfields and potato lands of Great' Britain."" (Cliefcrs.)