POLITICS TO FARM

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 365, 29 October 1932, Page 3

POLITICS TO FARM

' LLOYD GEORGE'S KNOWLEDGE OF AGRICULTURAL METHODS. HUMOROUS SIDE OF OTTAWA. Forgetting all about politics and becoming a typical farmer, Mr. Lloyd George witnessed a potato-manuring demonstration on his farm at Churt, Surrey, recently. While talking with the experts, Mr. Lloyd George quickly showed that he kno'ws as much about farming as he daes about politics. After examining potatoes and commenting on their quality he remarked laughingly: "You see, I would make a good chip potato merchant." During1 a discussion on prices, Mr. Lloyd George said: "I hear all about prices on the wireless. I am always on the loolc-out for the right moment to sell." After hearing the results of the experiments in growing potatoes with patent manures, Mr. Lloyd George said: "I used to he somewhat of a politician, but now I am trying to earn a living as a eultivator of the soil." Not Protection. iie caused laughter by saying that he had produced two or three apples where one thistle grew before, and ten potatoes where only one doek grew before. xxe almost made an irretrievable slip when he said: "So you see what can he done by protect ." JLhere was a roar of laughter, and Mr. Lloyd George in the nick of time added: "By production and not pro- i tection, which is a very different i thing." He said that it was essential that the whole resources of the State j should he behind agriculture. "I am told we are to look to Ot- , tawa," he said. "Can anyone'tell me what is to- come out of Ottawa? If he can for heaven's sake let hinptell me. I have been reading about it, and I ean't find anything, hui), whatever is dorie let it be done quickly for the sake of Britain." \ Mr. Lloyd George and a large party later took tea at the local hotel, where Mr. Lloyd George said' that the countryside was decaying, waning, wilting and weeding. Some Thoughts on Ottawa. j During the war this country was within two or three months of starvation. "We never learned the lesson," said Mr. Lloyd George. "We are more dependent to-day for supplies from overseas than we were even before the war." j He added: "I observe the Dominions , have gone home from the fair at Ottawa very pleased with their purchases. What did we buy there ? Are you quite certain we bought anything except a pig in a polce ? (Laughter.) I am waiting anxiously not as a politician but as a farmer to find out exactly what happened." Referring to beef, Mr. Lloyd George said he could not understand what was happening. "So far as I can see," he said, "there was a scuffle between " >J

the frost-bitten cows of Australia and the chilled hulloeks of the Argentine. (Laughter.) On the whole the frozen. animals won in that fight on points." (Laughter.) Mr. Lloyd George added that he wanted to see a real business examinatoin of the whole problem of food production from the puint of view of marketing.