GERMAN FARMERS' PLIGHT

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 141, 4 February 1916, Page 4 (Supplement)

GERMAN FARMERS' PLIGHT

FOODSTUFFS. ANIMALS, AND FERTILISERS. (A Danish farmer and stockbreeder, vvlio has exten- ve connections in Germany and has just returned from a business tour . ' n that country, lias written liis impress'ous for tlie "London Daily Mail."J There is great depression in agricultural Germany. The German farmer in under no illus oils as to the grievous food diffieulties which confront Germany if the war is prolonged anouier year. ] have recently made extensive journeys in Oldenburg, Hanover, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg. Ponicrania, and Fast and West Prussia. I have come into contact with agriculturists of all grades. Many are old acquaintances, and over a glass of Munich beer some of them were frank with me as to their troubles and fears. But 1 did not need the furtive confidences of my German friends. I am myself an expert agriculturist, and have been conversant for many years with German agriculture. My own observat'on as I travelled and what I was able to read between the lines in German newspapers enabled me to form conclusions as to the parlous state of German agriculture, and l.once of the German food supply. The chief food stocks of Germany are rye, pork, and potatoes. Even before the war tlicse three staple agricultural industries were suffering from adverse conditions. Your naval blockade and bad weather have hit the Germans hard.

IIYK. I'OIIK, AND POTATOES. The 1914 crop of rye wi-v deteriorated by heavy downfalls of rain at the end of June and in July. The crop sown that autumn suffered also from weather conditions. There was scarcely any rain upon the sandy soil of North Germany last winter, and the weather was also extremely mild. The young rye. normally protected when the frosts arrive by a blanket of snow, lay exposed. The frosts came ,iust niter the new year and continued almost without break until April. Had warm rains come in April and May the ryo crop would have revived to a great extent, but a drought then set in which lasted thirteen weeks. Pork is the stable flesh food in Germany. The pig is therefore by far the largest and most important live stock of the German farmer. The great European drought of 1911 struck a severe blow at the German pig-breeder. Owing to the failure of the potato c-rop, with its consequence of there not being enough swine food for the winter, many cases came under my own notice of large stock-holders having to kill off. Foot-and-mouth disease also ravaged the stock, and even at the outbreak of war it had not risen to normal figures. When war broke cut the supply of imported concentrated stock food ceased. Thus it became necessary to feed the stock on cereals and potatoes grown in the country. This caused a vital depletion of the stocks of rye and other foodstuffs required for human consumption. Hence the Government order that pigs should l>e fed only to a certain standard. In .January I saw in butchers' shops that pigs were being killed at only one hundred-weight (nor. mal weight 2J-cwt.). GERMANY'S MILK FAMINE. The position is now made worse by the relative failure of this pear's potato crop: During the last two months the market supply of pork has almost reached van shing point. 1 myself have seen none in restaurants for four weeks. Pork is forbidden to ho sold Hi shops on Saturday, the wage day and popular marketing day. This points to the fact that the German Government is anxious to keep the I mi ted quantitv of breeding stock that io left.

The potato crop lias suffered from three causes: the late spring, the phenomenal drought of the summer, and heavy early frost. From samples of crops I have myself handled 1 would place the potato crop of North Germany (the great potato-growing dstrict'j at a weak fifty per cent, of the normal yield. The late crop is usually lifted in early November. Towards the end of October came three days ot frost wherein the lowest October temperature for '2OO years was registered. The potatoes were frost-bitten and will not Keep in pits through the winter. In the Jlagbeburg sugar d strict I noticed that a cons derable proportion of the area formerly under beet is being turned to the production of cereals but the crops are in any case too gma'l to have any effect upon national requirements. Germany's milk famine is easily oxpla'ncd. It is not caused so much by depletion of stock as by the lack or food for the cattle. Cows will not give mlk o:i grass and hay only. Not only are lice and maize prohibitive 111 price, but also linseed, bran, and cottonseed. It costs five pounds in Germany to get four pounds' worth of milk. COAL, ROLLING STOCK, AND LABOCR.

Another pressing problem in front of Germany is her shortage of nitrates of all sorts for the manufacture of artificial manure. Even in normal times the German farmer does not allow a Tallow year in his rotation of crons. Just now he is, of course, cropping his soil to its utmost. He can only succeed by lavish use of artificial manures. The German stock of natural nitrates may be considered as being altogether exhausted as regards supplies available, for agriculture. Firms like the Ludwigshaven Chemical Company have been compelled to put down now plant for making two hundred tons a day of nitrate obtained from the air. phosphate of lime is also running short. The raw material, a residuary product of steel manufacture, exists largely enough, for the steel works are running at full blast. But the whole of the : r ava'lable labour is taken up for munitions and there is no surplus labour for the conversion of the phosphate into the line powder needful for agricultural purposes. There is a shortage also everywhere in Germany of natural manures. There are practically no horses left on the farms, the cattle are depleted, the swine are almost non-existent. The inevitable effect of Germany's present heavy cropping and star vat on of her soil will be debilitation. Should the war continue for another year it is easy to see that the German crops will still further depreciate in quality and quantity. I do not myself think that, with the oooning of the route to Constantinople, Germany will he able to import any b;rgo oumtit.v of food products. There is not sufficient rem ;:rown to allow of much export. Hut the chief trouble of the Germans will he the lack of coal, rolling stock, and labour. On all the Gorman railways that shortage is obvious. At Oeynhausen, in Westphalia, I saw a railway track in construct on. The embankment was being raised by boys, and girls of seventeen unloaded the earth trucks. Everywhere I have travelled in Germany I saw no workers 011 the land except old men. women, and children. Between the high prices of all foods and raw materials and the Govornmontrogulatod prices of almost all agrieul-

tural produce the German agriculturist is between the devil and the viocp sea. Two weeks ago the Farmers' Association (Bund der Landwirte) liieV in Berlin and expressed extreme ui<A--st against their lot. It is an unrest which is spreading everywhere among their countrymen.