BRITISH FARM PRODUCTION

Southland Times, Issue 24873, 13 October 1942, Page 5

BRITISH FARM PRODUCTION

Impressive Increase (8.0.W.) RUGBY. October 11. The Minister of Agriculture, Mr R. S. Hudson, drew an impressive picture in a broadcast of the agricultural achievements of Britain since the outbreak. In order to drive home the magnitude of these achievements he contrasted the lamentable state of farming before 1939. The neglect, he declared, was worse than anyone dreamed possible. Once fertile land that grew food crops and employed men had become desolate, and farm buildings were in ruins. Peace was desolating the land faster than war.

Mr Hudson pointed out that Britain was not alone in this. Farm-lands all over the world were dying, he said. Then came the war days and the exigencies of war. We had to grow more food at home, not only to escape starvation, but to release ships to carry men and munitions. Before the war we were producing less than two tons of food out of every five we were eating. “We have had to get crops grown on commons never cultivated in the memory of man,” he said. “In two years and a-half we have cut thousands of miles of hedges, cleaned out thousands of miles of ditches and drained some 3,000,000 acres. This year the ordinary British farmer is getting 40 bushels of wheat to the acre, a very large number over 50 and some of our champion farmers 80 bushels to the acre, whereas our pre-war average was 33 bushels. MIRACLE IN HARVEST-FIELDS “Some power has wrought a miracle in the English harvest-fields this sumber, for in this, our year of greatest need, the land has given us bread in greater abundance than we have ever known before. The prayer ‘Give us this day our daily bread’ has in these times a very direct meaning for all of us. We are preparing for still greater arable acreage next year. I expect to see both next year and the year after appreciable increases in our total production.” One of the most heartening results, Mr Hudson went on to say, was the effect on the farming community as a whple. “Nearly all we , have had to do with farming for the war,” he said, “can be of permanent benefit when peace returns. We have the soil, climate and men needed to make British agriculture not only an efficient industry, but an inspiration to the world, as indeed it was a century ago. With the knowledge we now possess we know today it is possible to banish want from the world and that the earth can produce enough for all her children,” he said.