FARMING IN EUROPE

Hokitika Guardian, 5 November 1930, Page 2

FARMING IN EUROPE

VISITOR’S OBSERVATIONS

DENMARK’S BID FOR BRITISH MARKET.

“Denmark’s concentration on England as a market for her dairy produce is the result of the imposition of tariff barriers by other European countries,” said Mr A. W. Lipscomb, agriculturn instructor at the Christchurch Technical College, who lias just returned to New Zealand after eight months in Europe.

"ft cannot be said,” added Mr Lipscomb, “that Denmark is clumping her produce in England, for that means getting rid of it at any price, but she is tax ng advantage of the best market that exists for her goods. “Since the war many of’ the European

countries have been unable to stabilise their agricultural industries, and Germany in particular has teen import ng a great quantity of dairy produce from Denmark to make up for wiiat could not be produced internally,” continued M,r Lipscomb. “Now that market, with others, is losing against Denmark; protection tariffs are being imposed, and, strenuous efforts are being made in Germany to intensify the agricultural production of the country. They are aiming at closer settlement, and the big estates are being cut up, so that there are not llow anytli'ng like the previous great number of largo landowners in Germany. The natural result of all this is that Denmark is concentrating on the free market that remains to her in England.

FARMING IN DENMARK. “Denmark is certainly one of the most progressive countries as far as uii things pertaining to agriculture are con_ cerneu. Personally, 1 do not think that the success is due to the amount of agricultural education that is done there—though they certainly do not neglect that side of the question—so much as to the fact that the country itself is specially suited to agricultural development. Resides that—and this is probably the most important factor—the people have a strongly developed agricultural instinct, a natural leaning toward that type of work. This is due to the natural conditions and the fact that there are really almost no other industries in the country of anything like the same importance, apart from engineering.

“The people are very energetic, and have ail application to their work that is not always evident eleswhere. An English farmer does not take farming half so seriously as they do. They see the end in view and they apply themselves to the work necessary to reach it, and this perception is one of the reasons for their success. A Danish boy’s outlook is towards farming as his life-work right from the time when he is first able to think.

“'From my observations, Franco seemed to be the most prosperous country, and there was practically no unomployment there The French are very precise in their agricultural methods, and make use of every available square yard of agricultural country. I was told that they supply practically all their own requirements as far as agricultural products are concerned, but I am inclined to think that they must import a certain amount of butter.

COMPETITION IN ENGLAND. “The English farmer generally is being faced with a very bad prospect for his goods .Tn most of the European countries agricultural labour is much cheaper than it is in England, even though wages are not high in England, and consequently, apart from any other factors, they are able to produce more cheaply. An example of the conditions is to be found in the plight of many of those who have been accustomed to make money by the sale of small fruits. They usually obtain ninepence a pound, and this year there was a bumper crop, but Belgium and France are sending over vast quantities, sell-

ing them in England at threepence and still making a profit. The same tiling happened last year with potatoes.

“The arable farmer is the man who is suffering the worst from the depression. Most of this type of farming is carried on on the East Coast, in Lincolnshire and Suffolk, where the country is hardly suited to any other class of farming. There men have not been making any profit at all for the past few years, and their condition is malting a large part of the policy of Mr Baldwin and his colleagues, who arctalking of putting on protection bounties. ido not know that the farmers are making special efforts to face the position—! do not know that they can do so in view of the competition—but much now depends on the political aspect. NEW METHODS HELP. “Those farmers who are engaged in the production of perishable goods, such as milk, eggs, etc., are in a bet-

position financially, chiefly by vir-

tue of the fact that the Continental producers are not able to bring their goods on to the market in so fresh a' condition. Apart from this those farmers who are extensifying their methods or keeping in touch with what are termed the ‘New World’ methods, and who are reducing their hired labour costs are not feeilng the pinch to anything like the same extent as the ordinary farmer. MLk.ng by machine is not generally in vogue in England, and women are engaged in rural occupations to a very large extent, numbers as milkma ds, and very many with small holdings, where they are engaged in poultry-fanning, bee-keeping, and horticultural work. Quite a number of the agricultural technical staffs are women, and there are almost as many women as men students taking the agricultural courses. “The whole aspect of the depression as far as the farmers m England are concerned is not due to under-produc-t'nn, but to the methods of marketing,” concluded Mr Lipscomb. “I think that England can do a lot more for her systems cf marketing by the organisation of pools and marketing Boards, for at present there is a lot of leakage in getting the produce to the market, selling, and so on. Denmark is splendidly organised in these matters of cooperative production and marketing, for they real se that success is utimately more dependent on marketing than on the actual production itself.’