Man On The Land Gets Chance

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXVII, Issue 15059, 20 August 1949, Page 5

Man On The Land Gets Chance

Britain Give? Government Aid Farm Workers With Own Small Holdings From October 1, 1949, Government aid is to bo made available to enable suitable men on the land in Britain to rent, equip and work their own small holdings writes Raymond Carr, British Journalist and Agricultural Specialist. In this manner another step is taken under the Agriculture Act passed in 1947, an Act which is steadily remoulding much of the national farming pattern. Only .the most imaginative of Britain's" farm workers, when they first "took to the land to work, for someone else, probablv visualised the opportunity which is now coming their way and it is indeed a lone stride from the very early agricultural story of Britain to the farming picture as it exists nowadays. Toclav almost every man, woman and child in Britain knows that whatever the country's achievements in food growing, and however wise and far-sighted the policy and planning of her farming policy, she can never produce enough from her own lands to feed much more than half her present population. World .Wars I and II strict rationing in peace after the war strain, and the sacrifice of the bulk of Britain's foreign investments, have now hammered home this truth to the peopTe as a whole and have induced farming in the United Kingdom into i's most natural and productive sh^pe. Twice in the last 100 years the pressures of internal and external have changed the general tendencies of farming in the United Kingdom. In the 70 years up to 1039 the trend awav from arable to pasture resulted in a complete reversal of custom. From 1940 to 1944 however, there'was" a,return to the older Broadly, the 19 million acres of grassland -md 12 million aero - ; of arable of 1939 became 12 million acres of grassland and 19 million acre's of prgble bv 1944. But primarily the United Kingdom is a lb'c-sl-oek country and the drastic action taken in World War II was not to cn rl, l' ,- !f i" ; n ihe neace. As Mr T. Williams, Britain's Minister of Agriculture, pointed out, in wartime Ihe policv was to seek economy in the use of shipping; tod"v the aim i c ; to : we dollars and, at the same time, to guard the fruitful n ess; of the land. To economise in shipping rpace during'World War I T Britain had to grow wheat and coarse grains on every available acre some birely suitable for the ourposc. But the need was great and ihe measures drastic. In 1945 j wheat production had been raised 3?, j p°r cent on the pre-war figure, oats j 67 per cent, potatoes 101 and barley j 178. | Dairy herds were maintained and ' milk production increased, but meat : production shunned come 30 per ! cent. Flocks of ;,hcep had declined and so had the numbers nf nigs and poultrv. It. was. and is. vital to correct this Ira lance, and .by August. 1947 the Minister of Agriculture had told the fanning community of a j new four-year plan. Broadly this plan is seeking to i"> ; se agricultural production in the United Kingdom to a figure HO nor cent above the pre-war level, that is to say to 15 per cent above the best figure achieved during the years of World War II that period in 1943-44. In the view of most experts this is the absolute maximum eon-Vent with \hc maintenance of fertility. If this plan is worked to fulfilment the farmers will save ;i considerable part of Britain's annual food bill—and yet she is likely to remain the largest importer of food in the world. Tn order to achieve this result Britain is investing approximately £450 miJJion over the four vears 1949-52. It would be a lengthly task to detail how this money is to be u.-;ed, but it is flowing through main channels; the first for the development, reclamation and improvement of the land itself, the second for the provision of more machinery and the third for farm buildings and plant, typified, perhaps, by the modern grain drying inventions. Already Britain has the most highly mechanised agriculture of any country in the world in proportion ,'o agricultural acreage. Todav 300.000 tractors haul a vast array of machines over her fields, but. best of all, the slow but steady drift away from the land of the workers seems to have been halted. In 1949, with the men who work under the land as miners, farm workers are accorded their true place in the forefront of Britain's drive for increased production. It is not surmising therefore, that the scheme to enable farm workers to farm on. their own account is rightly considered one of first importance. A task of the utmost urgency also is the improvement of 22.000 or so small holdings- already let to individuals by smallholding authorities. Beyond that, the aim is to give farm workers perference whenever small holding Pre t 0 De \ e f anf j t 0 provide candidates within the 25-40 age belt, and with at least five, years' experience, with holdings to yield from £4OO- - a year, income. The Government is to provide up to 75 per cent, of working capital, with repayments to be spread over 15 years at three per cent after a clear first year. This- aid will be for holdings of up to 50. or in exceptional cases 75 acres, and these will mainly be of three types, dairy holding's with up to 20 milking cows, mixed dairy holdings with some semiintensive arable cultivation and "finalJv for market gardens. Today the United Kingdom agriculture has one of the greatest yields per man of any country in Europe. There would seem to be no better way of lifting that yield still higher than by encouraging good husbandry. Already it is possible to discern the new and it may be permanent pattern of Britain's farming.