RURAL AMERICA

Hokitika Guardian, 9 May 1931, Page 2

RURAL AMERICA

OVER-PRODUCTION CURSE. FARM BOARD’S WORK. AGRICULTURALIST’S VIEW. Plenty of care is necessary when a Government organisation gets to won* on a programme aimed at stimulating prices lor tne benefit of tin* tanners, judging from the story told recently oy .Ur F. A. Flood, of Lincoln, Nebraska, an agricullura! writer, who arrived bv- the Mono.iai Irani Sail JjTatU’lsCU. Mr Flood explained the effect of the Federal I-arm Board in the States and recalled the work of the Brazilian Government, which had stimulated coffee prices to such purpose that “the coffeepot boiled over aid the industry was swamped.” “I don’t know whether the Government is trying to do anything of th,a kind here,” said Air blood, “but if it is, it should tread pretty warily.” In the States, he sail, production was I,,'t the trouble. They could produce miles more than they wanted, Over-production was the big curse and had led to the farmers asking for some kind or farm relief c o that they could get higher priors. In their elect io-s they insisted on the Government taking a hand, and sent in a vmilvr of pW+’- : ' '•> a'tlioiigll

they knew the farmers wore nil at gen’with their ideas, got for them the scheme they wanted. . ■ • ,

A FARM BOARD. The Federal Fanil . Board was established accordingly about a year and a half ago and got into its stride alter tile hist six months, uiidcrtaki'g to stimulate prices, .lust as in Brazil where the same sort of thing had hern tri d, th-2 scheme in one respect was disastrous. It stimulated prices, but it stimulated over-production, too, “If yofi go ahead an c ] assist the farmer to get higher prices he responds by producing twice as much in the next season,” said Mr Flood. “Aft ir aii, you' can go on buying radio and automobiles and silking stockings, and things like that,: and use the lot ; but? you don’t use morel wheat and butter than you need. But.terfat prices are now. just half what they wore a years ago. '

Did GOPD: WORK. , , , ■ ■ ■ : ;! .: , : , Farmers had. a ,big , voter and they n'skorl. for the Federal Board,, and got it, lie said. The board had done a "rent pioce of work, of course, and tile best it possibly eon hi have done in view of its formation and status. But organised farm relief was a difficult job,' anil had ruined, for instance, the coffee farmers of Brazil where the Government had helped thorn to get higher prices, an t [ it had “bust” them.

“We have got. the same tiling in the States, especially now, with Russia, Austral'a o;id the. Argentine all

producing big crops. Over-pro- , 'dpctioh is tlie biggest curse possible. ' Oii'r iiTiclii'verv ami efficient, methods I and Scientific agriculture produces too much—tliat’s all there is to it.” ■■POSITION’ IN MIDDLE WEST. - | Told of the distress signals from poverty stricken farmers in the States, ' echoes of which had reached New Zealand. Mr Flood said they had plenty of farmers who thought they were poor anj in distress and were raising a terrible howl, but every one of them in the mid-we«t. v l *"-,, he j came from, had a.n automobile or, two, radio, expensive clothes for their wives, and their children certainly at' high school and probably most of them at college.

They, had all these things, said Mr Flood, but they were howling because they had not■ so much money as they had a year ago. They did not know how well off they were. It was one of tlm things which he tried to bring! borne to them. j Air Flood himself was brought up on: a farm an c j there was no question of, his- having any lack of sympathy with 1 the farmers, but with bread lines and soup lines in the cities anff plenty of j distress, farmeis in the middle west : were relatively well off, There was no real poverty among them. “They don’t know what hard times ar-e,” he said.

CONTRO.T -LING PRODUCTION. However, through over-production, tliey were certainly getting far less income than they had in the past. The Federal Farm Board, although de. signed to stimulate prices had recognised very wisely the necessity for a solution, to over production, and in addition to its main purpose it had for a secondary and very important one—the actual control of production. By propaganda and agricultural education it had endeavoured to get the farmers to produce a balanced crop and to manage their production in « way that would stem the tide. Mr Flood is paying only a brief visit to New Zealand and left for Australia from Auckland yesterday. In the short time lie was here ho spent, n dav visiting farmers in the Palmerston North district and a similar day at Hamilton. H\« has heard a good deal about New Zealand butter.- chivy cooperatives and intensive dairy farming. WHITES AND LECTURES. His aim on the. present, trip is to spend some months in the Dutch East Indies, Jsva Borneo, Singapore and

Japan bo "ore returning to America. New Zealand ‘is only a port of call, but lie intends to return here, next year peril: ns, ami to spend three months. Last year lie was in South America, the veai' before jii Africa, and at the conclusion of each Of tii-feso annual tr ; ps lie writes articles for a group of agricultural papers and goes on a lecture tour through farming districts. His chief in America was one of the eight members of the Federal Farm Board appointed by President Hoover. Travelling with '.Ur Flood as far rs Singapore is Mr Russell Fifer, another American writer. who intends to return heme via Europe.