THE ENGLISH FARMER'S WORRIES.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 287, 4 December 1929, Page 6

THE ENGLISH FARMER'S WORRIES.

I (Spent a good part of twfo days last week on a Berkshire farm, which is to • my mind one of the best examples in Britain of ilhe recovery of halfderelict land to high farming if writes Sir W. Beach Thomas in a recent "SpectaiU >r"). A few years ago the land was foul and worthless. It is now producing the very best of potatoes, strawberries, hops—a new crop for Berkshire—bush and tree fruit, as well as more extensiv m- farm crops. The bare fact that barren land hast been made highly productive is, of course, of the Ihi'ghest importance locally and to the nation. Suchi fl. spacious experiment as this—the farm is onmr 2000 acres in extent—is invaluable for the stil'.dent of farming. But at the moment I would call', attention hot so much to the general enterprise a 6; to the economic results of certain special crops. The very last rows of potatoes from a field of a vor thirty acres were being put into clamps, wsj ch .pretty well encircled the field. The crop was ,good, the quantity good; but at present prices o ach acre would show a loss of at least £6. Li st year losses wero greater, not particularly on this farm, but in general. Even public institution s such as hospitals were buying new imported p<, itatoes at £15 to £17 a ton, when good English • potatoes were unsaleable at £1 or £2. Our farm tng economists seem to be coming to the opinion that imports from southern countries are quite kil ling the trade in early produce, though it is the i 3arly crop of fruit, vegetables and potatoes- that has always been sold at the highest price. Th» hops on the farm were magnificent, as good as tl le best from Kent or Worcestershire, but hops, w. hich are the most intensive of all farm crops, haw e been overproduced—not in England but in Eur ope. Again, blackcurrants, quoted for years as th« most stable of all crops in price, were this yeaci .* a drug in the market. Now for the reverse oil the medal. The wheat yielded no less than seven quarters to the acre; and experts who inspected 1 the samples described them as scarcely inferior I;o Manitoba No. 1. Even at the wretched price <pf 44/ or so a quarter the wheat will show a balance on the right side, justifying the much-criti Wised verdict of Sir Rowland Biffen that wheat wi'tl remain the standby of the British farmer. Sugai C beet, again, grown in singular perfection, will psry. Some of the crop is to be used for demonstrat lion purposes at the new ingenious drying and pul Jiing factory at Eynsham, where some few farme fs sent even their relic potatoes to be cut and di fied for purposes of fodder. It would seem to be ; satisfactory that two crops, open to the ordin frry farmer, showed a profit. Nevertheless, and ir t spite of an exceptional harvest, the year has bee' n one of the worst, not the best; and the chief reason is the sudden and unpredicted oscillation e in price. Standardised prices are the great < lesideratum. As things are, every intensive crop if. a gamble, and each year fewer and fewer farm* jjrs are in a financial position that justifies the gannble. The collapse in price, which kills the producer, does not as a rule extend as far as the mark t>t in which the consumer buys. The minimum l detail price for potatoes for poor urban buyers is i it the rate of £10 a ton, even when the farmer ■ cannot sell at any price,