NEW FARMING ERA IN BRITAIN

Taranaki Daily News, 30 March 1917, Page 2

NEW FARMING ERA IN BRITAIN

STATE-AIDED AGRICULTURE. GOVERNMENT'S POLICY DECLARED. Mr. R. E. Prothero, President of the Board of Agriculture, in a recent ad-, dress to a meeting of the Federation of Agricultural War Committees, at the Middlesex (luiidhall, outlined the agricultural policy of thu Government. "We are," said Mr. Prothero, "a beleaguered city, and wa must act under the full consciousness of that fact. The War Agricultural Committees have already done admirable work, but wo mean to ask them to do a'great deal more." They might have noticed an apparent conflict of duties between the Food Controller and himself.. He had met Lord Devon-port and put down the short lines defining their mutual duties, and he wasabsolutely satisfied with the result. "I am quite sure," he went oh to say, "that I have got a free hand, and at the same time that we shall gain for agriculture all the enormous advantages of the wide powers -which the Food Controller has in dealing with that Department of tho State." The Federation had no idea of infringing on tho duties of the County Council. "The reason we have not so much food at the present time is that we are not making the best use of all the land. That is tho point I want to put my finger on. The first thing to do is to find out what land there is in the country that-is either derelict or insufficiently cultivated. Many a farmer has got more land than he can work profitably. It is not his fault. We must get that land cultivated, and cultivated to the fullest possible extent. Wo are going to supply every county war agricultural committee with a list of the products that we believe from our knowledge of the whole position to be most essential to tho safety and welfare of the nation, hearing in minds always that we aro a beleaguered city.

GROWING THE ESSENTIALS. ' "We are to give you what wa think to be the amount of produce and the kind of produce we specially want you to grow. We cannot have precious land growing things which aro not essential. We cannot havo too much land growing, for instance, mustard »and crysanthemums. Bread and meat are more important than cither. We .want the War Agricultural Committees to see this thing carried through. This is a farmers job. How can the Board of Agriculture, with its comparatively limited knowledge of each locality, say how you an to grow this -produce? We appeal to you with absolute certainty that you will respond to the appeal to do your very utmost to carry out what we propose. We hope to bo able to give you assistance, clerical assistants, surveyors ■uul valuers, and all assistance that is required to get out this first step, which is a- survey of the laud in each county which can be utilised to the best profit. You will be able to plan out the county in districts and appoint in each district a small committee to work out the local details as to the land available ajid make a survey. If you set to work at once you ought to do it within a fortnight. I very much hope no man who can afford to work voluntarily in this matter will refuse to do it. We propose to give you wide power to enter upon, occupy, cultivate and put in the seeds that we want grown on the land, which you yourselves admit to be insufficiently cultivated, or not cultivated at all.

COMPULSORY POWER. "We mean you to have compulsory power—but I need not say to you you will do it on your own. Wherever you can get in a bargain with a man, do it, but behind that you have the driving force of compulsory power. In this compulsory power should be included this clause—a clause that no farmer shall be liable to a fine for breach of covenant, if he ploughs up grass land. (Hear, hear!) We are going to fix contract prices. There is to be no fiddling about maximum and minimum. We are going to say that your crops shall bo sold at certain prices. I should fail in my duty to the nalion if I fixed a price, which gave you pleasure, -but I hope it will satisfy you. It will be a price which will give you a reasonable profit and it is a price at which the food in this country, as wo hope with other measures, will ba kept at a steady levei. The contract price we propose to fix for wheat is 00s. It is not a matter of a maximum or a minimum, price. That is the price. If it goes above that price you will be the losers; if it goes below tho Government is. the loser." OATS, (POTATOES AND BARLEY. As to oats and potatoes, Mr. Prothero said, this was rather more puzzling, as he did not know at present, the price of seed, hut the price for those two products would be fixed and would be announced pblicly within the next fortnight. With regard to barley, he had not yetrmade up his mind "what lie would do about it. They must not expect if they did fix a contract price for barley that the. exceptional barley prices at the present moment would /be continued. Barley would fall, as usual, between wheat and oats. With regard to growing barley for tho brewer, he was not going iuti the question of drink, but lie thought the public did not quite understand that the brewer not only brewed beer, but he produced milk. If they had not got the brewer's grain they could not send the milk in tho quantities they now did to the big towns. They had got to get right down to tho cottage garden. With regard to potatoes, they had already stopped the consumption of seed potatoes—that was the en table- consumption. They had sent out notice to the War Agricultural Committees to find out in each village how many men could grow potatoes and how much they wanted. They would have to limit potatoes. They had got some financial assisatnee from tho Treasury, but at the present they were insisting on cash with the order. He thought that would not do. It would spoil tlic ship for a halfpennyworth of tar.

CREDIT AGAINST CROP. What he wanted was to arrange a system of credit against crop. Another tiling they wanted was to revive pig keeping. They were receiving assistance from the Rural League and the Agricultural Co-operative Society, .and botli bodies were at the disposal of the committees for working out the scheme. As regards oats and potatoes, Mr. Protliero said, the b.iard would do their best t" see that seeds were procurable and -at a reisonable price, and an organisation .v.cv.1.1 up in Louden

of -which he would he chairman, and agricultural men would be put upon it. Any War Agricultural Committee who had got any difficulty could apply to that, committer, who would see how it could he solved. "We shall give you the host assistance. We shall be able to buy .your potatoes on much better terms than (".dividual Agricultural War Committees buying against each other all over the country. It is my sincere conviction that victory or defeat in this great war in which we are engaged may be won on the cornfields and po- 4 tato lands of Great Britain." .(Cheers)."