EMPIRE PRODUCE.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20790, 25 February 1933, Page 6

EMPIRE PRODUCE.

"THE FARM AND THE NATION." SIR J. RUSSELL'S NEW BOOK. (rttOM OUB OW» COBBESPONDEHT.) LONDON, January 19. Sir John Russell, in his new book, "The Farm and' Nation, "reviews the Empire's contribution to the requirements of Britain. He maintains that we could without difficulty develop allBritish supplies of milk, potatoes, lamb, mutton and cheese. The milk and potatoes we can be responsible for entirely ourselves. Of the cheese, what Cheshire, Somerset, and the other producing areas at Home cannot supply we could get from Canada and New Zealand. All the necessary imported supplies of mutton could come from New Zealand and Australia. But in the ordinary course of events Argentina, Denmark, and other Continental countries and the United States would long continue to send in some foodstuffs which -we and the Empire produce. Would it be worth while, and worth the cost, Sir John Bussell asks, to reduce greatly their share of the nation's requirements in beef, bacon, butter and eggs? We must admire the enterprise and - success' of small countries such as Denmark, Holland and Belgium, which are supplying our markets with highquality produce, honestly graded and low in price. Amid the economic chaos of Europe ought we, it is asked, to set out deliberately to break the trade which they have built up by hard work and which means so much to them! The British farmer will be ready enough with the answer that for too long this country has been "hail fellow, well met" with all and sundry, showing no proper regard for the interests of the Home producer. Sir -John Russell sees three ways in which Brjtish agriculture could be treated. It could be:—

1. Organised for the production from our own soil of as much food as is practicable. 2. Organised for the provision of work for men displaced by modern methods and by machinery. 3. Left to struggle as best it can against unrestricted imports of foods from overseas, the farmer being en-

tirely free to gain any possible profit for those working on the land regardless of the total amount of wealth produced. The production of the maximum amount of food from our soil necessitates in present circumstances measures to protect the farmer against loss. A contract system, such as provides agreed prices for milk and sugar beet, would be wanted, or a workable quota system. The indications are that the contract-cum-quota • method will be adopted as an encouragement to Home production if the principle of the pig marketing scheme is followed. As regards t|ie second method, Sir John Russell believes that there arc possibilities in the establishment on the land of communities that are largely self-sufficing, on the lines of the early settlers in Canada and' the United States, though provided with nyadern

implements to obviate the hardships of those times. -But he has no Elusions about the position of the ordinary smallholder. Small Landowners. He writes:—"Since the holdings are purposely made too small for the full use of. machinery, the small holder has to spend longer hours than the corresponding worker on the large farm in order to obtain the same output or the same wage. He has full liberty to do this himself, or to cause his wife and children to do so, but he may not employ aijpther person except at the higher wage xate fixed for farms. It is not uncommon for a small. holder, his wife, and young children to work much harder and for much longer hours than a grown-up son wlio is a porter at the local railway station, and yet at the end of the week their joint labours have brought them in less money." "Nevertheless," Sir John Russell remarks, "so strongly is the desire implanted in many men to work as they like and not in accordance with instruction, and so great is their love of farming, that they quite cheerfully take up small holdings and produce more food an acre than the average large farmer, in the hope of moving on from a small to a large farm. This spirit is entirely commendable, and it never fails to excite the sympathy of the British public."

N.Z. POULTRY MEN. " NOT KEEN BREEDERS." Some time ago an Auckland opponent of the wheat duties considered that in Auckland they had the best hens in the world, and he instanced the caso of a ben that laid double-yoked eggs. It will be rather an insult, therefore, to this enthusiast to read what a Victorian visitor (a member of the farmers' party) had to say tiio other day. Mr 15. Mitchell, who is superintendent of die Bendigo egg-laying competition, said, in addressing a meeting in that city last week, that ho had been surprised to notice that the New Zealand poultrymen did not place the same reliance on accurate breeding as did the dairymen and sheep breeders. Most of the male birds woro in good condition, but the females were a mixed lot. When he made a comparison with the Victorian egg-layeJ*, he felt that the

New Zealand poultryman was not a keen breeder. Evidently the New Zealandor did not make the same study of the hen as the dairyman did of the cow. New Zealanders had far too many coarse birds, and did not carry out culling to any degree of determination. The coarseness was especially noticeable in the head of the layer, which was much larger than the average Victorian fast layer. < As the Victorian visitors were allowed to see little else but Auckland, it has to be accepted that the remarks apply to that province.

Attempts to sustain prices for Engglish malting barley recently have been unsuccessful (says the "Melbourne Argus") and quotations have declined from about 2s lOd a bushel for good quality to the present level .of 2s 6d. In previous years the export trade has maintained prices about this time of the year. Markets in the United Kingdom, Europe, and New Zealand have been the means of disposing of surplus supplies. This year, however, practically no export business of any volume has been done from this state. Business with New Zealand buyers was checked by the depreciation of New Zealand currency and competitipn from cheaper offerings from South Australia. Victorian growers have been obliged to rely for the disposal of their barley upon the comparatively restricted outlet in the home malting trade. Maltsters liave already acquired fairly substantial supplies, and, with low prices being offered them for their malt, tbev have scarcely entered the market, Even lower prices have nob attracted business, and , without the export trade the prospects for barley are duIL