WAR FARMING IN BRITAIN

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 22, 20 October 1917, Page 12

WAR FARMING IN BRITAIN

NEXT YEAR'S PROGRAMME

SELF-SUPPORT THE AIM

Sir Arthur Lee, Director-General of ITood Production, recently itssued. a stateiiiuiit explaining the reasons for the revision ot the agricultural programme Jor ililS. He writes: The public is familiar with the statement, made more loosely perhaps in popular debate thau in the original autuoritativo form, that the Government urged farmers to plough up an additional "3,0(4000 acivd oi , grass land." The public probably is not so generally aware that eince the first declaration of this i'oiicy of the plough in the spring the uemand upon our agriculturists has been modified in. material particulars. In 191G there were 5,730,000 acres under corn crops (wheat and barley, oats, rye, beans, and peas) in-llnglani and Wales. The boar I aim at an addition to this area of 2,600,000 acres in the harvest of 1018—an addition of 300,000 acres has already been made. In 1918 the board expect to secure 600,000 acres of potatoes, as compared with iiifiW acres grown in 1916. ivearly one-half of this increase hns alreadv been obtained. To the area under mangoi'us and other fodders essential in the winter feeding of cows it is proposed to i,"* about 230,000 acres. Tho total additions to the crops which may be used eiuier directly as human food or for the production of milk will thus bo 3,000,000 acres as compared with 1916. On tho other hand, reductions in the areas of temporary grass and in certain of the less important crope of arable land arc propesed, so that the extra 3.000,000 acres of essential crops may, it is estimated, b© secured by the ploughing up of alxmt 2,000,000 acres of permanent grass. Over and above mountain and lull grazings there were 16,000,000 acres under permanent grass in England and Wales in 1910) it is thus only necessary to plough one:'.ighth of our grass land when prepari"/ for the harvest of 1918; and it may ho estimated that quite one-fifth of this task has already been completed. Aim of the Revised Plan. Various circumstances have combined to bring about this revision of the ynicial programme for 1913. In the first place, the new policy has proved so acceptable in. Ireland and Scotland 'that those two countries have contributed, an increased corn production this year jver tha year 191G, and .haveirranged to add largely to their tillage for 1918. This factor has ennblod the Government considerably to reduqe its call upon England and Wales. "Other factors in the situation have beeji the difficulty, without unduly interfering with the supply of man power for the irray, the Navy, and munition, aiw'l other essential services, of providing sufficient labour and niachinßry to carry out tho ivholo of the Government's agricultural programme in one season. The aim of tho Governments revised plan (as it was the aim of tho original) is to break up a sufficient amo/tint of tho poorer quality grass land that hns fallen ilown 6ince 1870 or thereabouts to grow enough cereals to "render the country self-supporting in ease of extremity." It has never been suggested, that grass' land only should be used toi obtain tho idditional corn crops; some of these, it was assumed, would be gro'H'n on existing arable land. Many of i.'he critics of ;he scheme seem to /have lost eight of this latter fact, or to havb concluded [which was not the case) tha-t the Gov;rnment was less .eager bp utilise the arable land more advantageously by changing tho rotation or hy improved cultivation, or both, than to break up more grass. At the eaTne time, the Board of Agriculture took the view that ive could not reckon, uniktr war condi■ims with a shortage of ln'lxmr and fer;ilisers, upon any great increase next itst over the average corn yields per icre of the ten years preceding the war. The Selection of th* Land. The selection of grass Iwod for plough, it should be noted, is ia the hands of local men, with special qualifications tor deciding wisely and fairly; and it is hoped that public opiuiun will support the county executive in a spirit of enlightened patriotism. Where the executive finds it impracticable to break up us much permanent grass land as the Food Production Department suggests, it is Dpen to them to substitute an additional jirea of temporary grass, although this is i course which obviously must bo-pur-sued with caution. Unless the position «f affairs should be;ome. unexpectedly more serious (luring the late summer, the official opinion is that with the good ui'll of agriculturists lonerally and a continuance of the enerjetic and public-spirited action' of the Bxecutives, it shouM be possible to approximate very neai.'ly to the ideal of an idditional 2,600,000 acres of corn following upon the breaklng-up of about 2,000,91)0 acres of permanent grass.