BRITISH FARMING

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 273, 13 July 1932, Page 2

BRITISH FARMING

sheepowners in england suffer with the agricultljrists. "The British farmer is just as badly off as the man on the land in New Zealand. Up to two years ago the sheep farmer in Great Britain was able to make the industry pay, but now he has dropped back to the same bad position ris the agricultural farmer. The only crop that paid last year was potatoes. Wheat is not profitable at present, and recently the tendency has been for rnore and more wheat land to be put down in pasture. Now that shetep'-farmihg has slumped, however, it is probable that there will be a return to arable farming again." In those words Mr. J. G. Wath'srston, of Edinburgh, who is making a three months' stay in New Zealand ih course of a trip round the world, partly on pleasure and partly to study farming methods, summed up the plight of the British farmer. _ He seems to be just as happjy in his lot as the New Zealand man on the land. Mr. Watherston himself is a farmer in Scotland, and is an agricultural graduate of Cambridge University. He started out from the Old Country last February, and since then has been to South Africa, the Argentine, and Australia, staying in the lastnanred country a week only. Scotland and Wheat.

So far he has not had a great deai of opportunity for the study of New Zealand farming, but he was interested in operations in Hawke's Bay, where he has been staying for a time. A significant feature of the departure from wheat-farming in Scotland, he said, was the giving up of p'airhorse teams. Scottish farmers always ploughed with pairs, in single ploughs, and they were dropping pairs every season now. Incidentally, Mr. Watherston has a great admiration of the New Zealand system of using teams for ploughing, and thinks that it might be adopted in Scotland. The system saves two men, which means a lot on a Scottish farm. He considers that our sheep loolc very well as compared with the Scottish stock, and are much bigger. The Scottish farmer, he said, did not pay so much attention to wool as the New Zealander, for the sheep were raised primarily for meat. The First Cargo. A big impression was caused in Edinburgh just before he left the city by the landing of the first cargo of New Zealand butter and cheess there. There was a big parade in Prince's Street, all the tradesmen of the city lending tbeir lorries for the occasion. The public was keenly interested in the whole publicity stunt. "I don't know whether there has been any increase in cho consr.mption of New Zealand butter and cheese as a result of it," he said with a smile. "I like New Zealand very much," he said. "I heard so much about what a splendid country it was while coriiing out on the boat that my exp'ectations were very high. It is sufficient to say that they have been fully justified. The winter climate is beautiful. "One notices the depression more here, I think, than in the Old Country — that is, in the cities and towns. Things are so very qui'et. What I do like about your means of giving assistance to the unemployed is the subsidy system for farmers in the use of labour. If possible, I should like to see that idea adopted at Home."