FARMING IN ENGLAND.

Shannon News, 15 October 1929, Page 4

FARMING IN ENGLAND.

IN DEPORABLE STATE. CONSUMERS PAY FOR MIDDLEMEN'S PROFITS. “Fanning in England is in a most deplorable condition —and I make that statement advisedly/' said Mr. H. J. Harris, of Palmerston North, who has recently returned from a trip to the Old Country. Mr. Harris paints a far from reassuring picture of the position of the primary producer in. England at the present day. On the Lincolnshire wolds, where his relatives had farmed for centuries, he stated that farmers were unable to ob-f tain even a reasonable price for their produce. He knew of one instance, where a farmer had been compelled to sell 900 tons of the best potatoes for £3 a ton, when the minimum price Which would have given him a return was £7.

An even more striking instance cited by Mr. Harris was that of a farmer who had sold a 561 b bag of cabbages for 4d. These cabbages had been handled by several middlemen and had finally been retailed to the consumer at 4d each.

These were only two of the innumerable instances in which the English farmer was suffering from the lack of a co-operative marketing system. There was absolutely no system of marketing farm produce and the results was that the farmer had to accept whatever was offered him and the middlemen reaped the profits. The incomprehensible part of the position was the fact that there were thousands of people in the Midlands anxiomS to buy potatoes and other farm produce at reasonable prices while at the same time, thousands of tons of potatoes were being used for manure by the farmer who would rather put them back into the soil than sacrifice them at the prices offered. “It is inexplicable/’ said Mr. Harris, “when one considers that in New Zealand with dearer land, dearer labour, and very distant markets, we can still beat the English primary producer in his own country."

“England has lost sight of the fact that she is still able to produce almost enough foodstuffs for her own requirements and has concentrated to the exclusion of all else upon the manufacturing aspects." Mr. Harris stated that farm produce of all descriptions was being imported into England from abroad while at the same time, the farmers of the OH Country could not bring ends within a reasonable prospect of meeting. The Department of Agriculture was investigating this serious position in an endeavour to find some remedy and Mr Harris inclined to the opinion that the present Labour Government was fully alive to the situation. In his own opinion ,the immediate remedy lay in the organisation of a co-operative marketing system, which would enable farmers to obtain a- fair price for their produce.