Farming Column.

Hokitika Guardian, 29 April 1933, Page 8

Farming Column.

AMERICAN FARMERS

INTOLERABLE BURDENS. The great fall of prices since the Repression began has made th P burden of debts intolerable everywhere. .but nobody in America has suffered more from it than the farmers. During the war they .--alarged, theiv production enorvmototy and, then, and for some years | afterward, encouraged by the high prices all their products brought, they ran heavily int 0 debt, buying with borrowed money new acres at figures wbicn : would .have been high for town lots. Most of these mortgage obligations were incurred between .1915 and 1922, , when the .farmers;added greatly to their; other debts as well, , mainly, through { purchases on the instalment ..plan and with bank borrowings of farm machinery, motor-ears, wireless .sets, and other needssities and luxuries. Between 1920 and 1922,. however, tin re was <n sharp drop >in farm produces and in farm income.., Warned by this that Tho> seven fat j years had come to. an end, and presse-i ' by their mercantile creditors and t-.f*; banks to pay off their borrowings,, the j farmers devoted whatever income they •could spare in the next few years to getting lid of their most immediate obligations. They were able to reduce these current debts between 1322 and j 1929 by about one-third, tc a ,Little | under 3,000,000.000 dollans, but .their, mortgage debts they could not reduce. |

When the .industrial crash c- me. in 1929 the furme-s’ mortgage debts were at tliei r peak. But, in addition to these debts and the unliquidated reminder of their go.called short-term borrowings, the farmers were burdened • down with taxes far beyond their power to meet; for in th e period of industrial boom, r [though farm income was declining, the rural counties as we’.l as the urban had been carried away by a zeal for public, 'iinproyements of every kind, from cement highways to new courthouses, and had been unab.e to resist the lure of che~p borrowing. They borrowed cheaply, but they bought dearly. "the burden of debt.

Now after three years of almost sheer decline, the average price of farm products has fallen to barely 40 per cent, of “normal” (the average of 1923-25), but th e Eimers still shave hangmg over them ttvair taxes, their 3.009,000,020 dollars or r,o of bank borrowings and rther r L :.-i-ent obligations, and about 8.259,000,000 cloV.-ars of mortgage debts. The total of mortgage debt is about 1.000,000,000 dollars less than it ws three year's ago, but the difference I s accounted for largely by - foreclosure sales, which in many instances wiped out. the last dollar of-equity.-the., farmers, had in their hand.

In their adversity the farmer,-, looked hopefully to Congress for reiiief; but such relief as was given them failed altogether to reach the root of their trouble—the inability of their foreign customers to buy from them any burner, their surpluses of production. Neither Congress nor the farmers themselves could finance purchases of grain and cotton in this country r,o long as tb«v had to remit huge sums here annually to pay instalments on their war debts and so ring ias the tariff imposed an insurmountable barrier to paying for their purchases with goods. Until the majo r fall of prices of pom. modifies in -international trade occurred the farmers, although overburdened with debt, wer e not really in a desperate condition.. Bub farm which even between 1919 and 1329 fell from 16,000,000,000 dollars t 0 11,000,000,000 dollars, fa'] >jn the next three yea re to only 5,300,000,000 dollars.

The foreign market that was once the (outlet of America’s agricultural surpluses i,s rap dly disappearing, and it is beyond all hope that the domestic market can absorb what the rest of the world no longer wants, or. else ls unable to pay for. So the farrner s are desperate.

Never G low to voice their grievances, even in the beet of times, at present they nr e sending up a clamour than can be heard all over the. nation. Disregarding . the distress existing everywhere els e in the country, they have .started a. “revolt” which is 'hardly the less formidable because it lacks definite organisation. SYNTHETIC BUTTER WAR. MOVE TO STOP SALES.. There is now a “war’.’ in Australia against the manufacture and sale oi margarine, but let it bo noted, right away that this “war” is not directed against margarine which is made from anbna! fats, -but is against margarine made from other .than domestic fats; in other words the dairying industry is out at all costs to protect the manufacture and sale of pure butter against the destructive and. damaging sale of synthetic butter.

Beset as it now is with extremely low butter prices in London, and the move to restrict exports of butter, the dairying industry is r.ow passing through probably the most serious crisis in its existence. It is unfortunate that the manufacturers of genuine margarine, who are no mean ally as a secondary industry to the primary, industry in which the grazing of live stock ranks first in importance, should now have to bear in measure the stigma of th e sypfhpt'c butter makers wjjose artificialbutter is made from coe-fjnut oils and coloured with palm oil. ..

Worse still.it will be if" the genuine ■ rpn rgarine makers should have to endure a slump in their business bc-

cans.e of the confusion th t now exists in the public mind concerning margauiiie, and. which, no doubt, will become intensified as opposition towards synthetic butter increases, it ■ is possible that any such reaction may even effect stock values, since domestic fats comprise one of the most valuable of their by-products. } Ever since man began to slaughter beasts in order to provide him with food, so the housewife has been using the fats of these slaughtered animals for culinary purposes. It was not till | the butter industry made its first, establishment that butter displaced animal fats to an extent as food for man and became a common base in eooki ei’y, confections, etc.; so that even if the manufacture and sale of margarine were completely prohibited, domestic, fats would still be used even as they were used 'before the manufacturers gave to these fats the trade name of margarine. While margarine continues to be | made from animal fats its use can find no justifiable opposition by dairying interests, for margarine supplies and fills a want that is quite distinct-, firm the wants that butter- fills. The fact ' H that tli ;> butter in,amifact urers have no. quarrel at the present time with the -makers of genu not maigiuine. .And it is in the best interests of our stockowners that the genuine •margarine • trade should not be harmed while all the guns are being E-aim d against the unwanted industr'’ destroying synthetic product.— (Country J.ife).

“WHY WORRY ABOUT THE DOMINIONS?”

The Manchester “Daily Dispatch,” which is inclined to take up the ‘Little England’ attitude, had in a leading I -article in February the words,: “Why Worry about Dominion dairy farmers and leave Lancashire mill operatives to kick tlieir heels in idleness?” The same journal lias printed a letter in which Mr H. T. 15. Drew, Government publicity officer, replies to this question. He says: “Are not the two tilings related? Last year, as the result of tlie fall in her produce prices, New Zealand's purchases of Britisii manufactures fell away from her 1929 figures bv over £10,000,000. If the people' of Lancashire had paid for New Zealand blitter the price they pay for , Da'iiisli butter—to-day the difference is 30s per cwt and it has been considerably higher— more money woi.iu have been spent by New Zealand in Lancashire mills, because the people of New Zealand.

SWEDISH BUTTER. The volume of Swedish butter exports to Great Britain has befen influenced I y tlie Ottawa Agreement, but a substitute trade has been found i» the export of cream, which is being encouraged by a bounty’. According 'to the Stockholm correspondent of the London “Times,” the butter duly in Great Britain amounts to about 2d a pound on the present price. The duty on milk and cream was not touched at Ottawa, and remains at 10 per cent. It has been calculated that the duty and freight on cream are lower than the duty on butter, and that therefore it is more profitable to export cream from Sweden, particularly as the Swedish Government has agreed to pay almost the same bounty as it dees on exports of butter. The butter produced from Swedish cream is stamped in England as being produce, and brings a considerably higher price than the imported butter. In some quarters it is considered that the Swedish action will affect New. 1 Zealand exports of butter to Great Britain. PRODUCTION OF MILK. The only time a cow gets a chance to store the material required for the next season’s milking is when she is dry. During that period she must store up in her body and skeleton a supply of the materials she converts lino milk.. Experiments, often repeated, show that no matter bow she is fed inter calving, calcium (lime} cannot be assimilated in sufficient quantity for her production of milk; there is always lain, adverse balalncc, and unless she starts milking with a big reserve, she cannot continue to milk profitably for long.

“AS OTHERS SEE US—”

“|f -the Danish farmer likes to nun himself by producing bacon at 2s Cel a. stone—as he is doing—and the New Zealand farmer is doing likewise by landing bis lambs in Smithfield at bd per lb, it is hard lines that the British farmer should be pulled down with them,” said Mr J. 0. Harris, secretary to the North Yorkshire and South Durham Farmers’ Union, speaking at Northallerton last month. DENMARK’S WAY. WILL CONSUME MORE OF HER OWN BUTTER. Word has reached New Zealand that Denmark in an effort to restrict her own surplus of butter for exnort, lies bit ,on a novel plan. Each factory in the kingdom is insisting on eaui farm family taking four pounds of butter a week, and consuming it instead of -margarine in the household. The .amount thus consumed may not prove, to be very large, but the spirit in .which the regulation Ims been drafted is greatly to be admired.