BRITAIN'S FARMS

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21246, 18 August 1934, Page 22

BRITAIN'S FARMS

"UNEMPLOYMENT AND TH] LAND • boe-.-iaiiv written fcr "The I':ess.* ! By QUEN'TIN' POPE .! (Concluded.) One factor in Britain's new lan policy has been the hope, felt for year past, that the country districts woul prove capable of absorbing a larg percentage of her millions ox" ur.em ployed. For over a decade the peopl ff the Old Country have unccmplain mgiy borne the burden of support in one-fifth of the employable registered workers. What better than to plac many of these men on the land, t •train the young ones to be farmers, t the food wnic'n now comes iron overseas, and thus to strengthen th state on every side? That, at a! events, has been t'.. 'houaht. But examination vf the siiua'to: soon reveals a very disturbing state o affairs. While the number of industria unemployed has been growing, so ha the number of unemployed farm work This fall in agricultural worker has been continuing for years past. A rirst it was the fashion to ascribe it :< the desire to emigrate, to restlessness The attraction of mechanical cccupa tior.s, and the drift to the ctite?. Bv. ;n the depression years, wnen thesi reasons became non-existent and th* tendency was for people to return tc the land, the decline in worker continued. Since 1921 n't ore than 130.0W men have left the land. For the first uroi in many years unemployment came tc many villages, and while the towns men* were look ins; towards the eour. try as a solution of the unemploymerr problem the country was looking towards the town. More Mechanisation Necessary Further consideration of the issue •will lead to the conclusion that i: Britain aims at becoming more selfsufficient in food her policy, to be successful, must result not in more mer being employed on the land, but ir less. A vigorous advance in agricultural production is possible only if it i: mechanised to the degree of its competitors (our machine-milking in Is'ev. Zealand would be a novelty to mos' English farmers, while our cheap supplies of electric power on the farm are still vastly in advance of Britain despite the newly-completed "Grid"). I: the unemployed are to be placed or the land successfully a policy of smal. holdings is needed, and if these holdings are to be too small to encourag*. the use of machinery the farmer wii be forced to work longer hours and t. obtain assistance from his family. Th; earlier policy of establishing smal holdings on these lines has languisnec since the middle of 1931. and th( county councils who were charger with the task of administering _ the scheme have found the effect of th; depression in agricultural prices anc the need for economy in their owr •finances twin reasons for curtaiiin: their work. A later policy of starfin; group settlements where a number o men have farmed on co-operative lir.e. has been more successful, but on th' whole the system has not been selfsupporting, and considerable assistance has been needed from public funds. Soldier Settlement Losses After the war the policy of lane settlement was begun as one means o; absorbing the discharged soldiers. Ths plan was not on any enormous scale, but 17,000 small holdings were created in England and Wales. The losses on . these holdings up to the end of 1933 : amounted to more than £ 12.000,000. The policy had virtually failed in ; 3 926, when the Small Holdings ar.d, . Allotments Act was passed, and since that time only a few hundreds of allotments have been added to those i;>.; existence before that year. The later ] holdings have proved much less expensive to the Governmnt, which has " contributed up to 75 per cent, of the Josses, but there has been very little desire to take advantage of them. If the policy of creating a new peasantry in England is to be adopted it will have to be done on Danish or New Zealand lines —that is, the small farmers will have to be placed on the • land in a general scheme, operating in .-.relation to one another, producing the ; "same general class of article, and as- : sembling their produce at one depot ; ;for shipment. The co-operative policy j in packing, grading, and distribution' ■rwould .make closer settlement a ciis- j : tinct possibility in England and would! "mean a real threat to the countries which are at present supplying her ■with food. There is. however, small chance of this being done. For a long time the line of pfllicy was considered far more likely to follow the course of leaving the small-holder free to .produce what he likes and how he likes and to curtail all efforts at Government regulation of his product. Marketing Acts I This is the traditional English j course, and it is only recently that the I signs of abandonment of it have been I •revealed, first by the creation of collective markets where farmers have! "heen encouraged to bring their pro- j duce, second by the passing of the \ Marketing Acts. The collective mar-i .Jtets, one of the most successful of j -which has been at East Grinstead, have ; "been operated by voluntary workers *«nd have really formed a sort of produce fair held once a week, reintroducing the ancient habit of marketing day. The Marketing Acts are by far the most ambitious effort ever made | „to infuse method into English farm-; insj, biit their possibilities remain un- j .explored because of the fact that it has ; taken and will take a long period be- j fore tlje full effects of the new policy : can •be estimated. Food supplies cannot be- altered rapidly, and. espociall; . in sudh industries as that of milk anc milk products, the time needed foi -breeding alone is likely to mean tha ! between three and four years wil elapsa" before the new arrangement: may be tested.. Organisatior plac# alio are bound to progress • slow!*) and for this reason it s-t-ern.-probaole that the results of even t successful land policy. reinforced b; a vigorous plan of settlement of r.ev, farmers on the land, will r.ot be acparent until about 1933.

' Home Crofting Movement There is, however, one land policy ; under which Britain might solve the : problem of many of her unemployed. 7 and that is by the method known as - 1 the home crofting movement. This plan aims at providing men with sufficient money to pay rent, provide food and clothes, and at the same time keep them occupied. The primary aim ) of the home crofts movement is to raise food for family consumption and : not for sale. Each man is provided with about two-fifths of an acre of land, but the areas are contiguous, and i portion of them is unfenced and the , • benefits of machine cultivation are * available to all. The rent, including -* the house, is 12s 6d a week, and this, together with other expenses, must be - met from earnings outside the scheme. e It is, indeed, such a plan as Colonel J. J. Esson put forward in New Zealand after his return from a world tour S as a member of the Rural Credits :l Commission. c. With the present financial stringency : , none of these policies is likely to be j ; adopted on a grand scale, but there -i arc indications that there will be more 2 ' rapid settlement in future. The great I difficulties in the way are that only a minority of the town workers are 1 i likely to be capable, physically or f psychologically, of the hard work 1 which transference to the country will s mean. Past governments have recog- - niscd this and have pinned their faith s; on migration. When Lord Lovat t visited New Zealand some years ago 3 he brought before the New Zealand ~ administration proposals for the dis- - patching of large numbers- of imem- J ' ; ployed miners to this country, but the -' British Government was not prepared ; to make loans for the settlement of : ' these men arid the proposal was not : " received with enthusiasm. To-day. for J all the continued existence of a manu- : facturing crisis, there is more hope of j ' the English worker being reabsorbed ' back into his own industry 'unless he j ! is a miner or textile worker' than j ; of him going ori the land. And the ''possibility of the- new organisation of j : llritish farming being able to relieve him is still extremely doubtful. J The Farmer's Individualism Tim greatest cause of opposition to '. the marketing board policy has been t.-.e deep-rooted individualism of the | British farmer. The new policy has ! also been unable to afford" him any | ; relief worth mentioning—after months . cf operation the agricultural depression ■! is deeper than ever. The price of pork ; has been raised scarcely a penny a ■■pound, though the p;g scheme was the ! i first to go into action, and egg prices ;: have been as low as 7d a dozen. Gen- '■' era! dissatisfaction has ruled with the •'operations of the Milk Marketing " !, d rf the mruner p -v cau c t i . n i tit T i ra ion of r C{ t ii b t d ibi i i e ! not ic m be pkcu t bat„ui r j o t tot ttV r u to nco i " , t ept t d iit <. c la a io ia S *"(. it hi I n quo a «; i c. i I i c \> \ i i it n lu i J* 0 tC~ J Id 1 I ' s~ s A ace K " \ ei r r "■ r d eff re r i, t*. *i er "t i es f u a d \ c e pti ar u c I e m 1 V -- <, i i at 1 idhi d t l u j in pi* c hj" o ic o d't t to irme ic t he ipu t it > \rJ e en \ n a o rti ia app td to our pod c it setm ha: , a concentration on quality and keener j ;. methods of marketing might acexm- : i plish much in undoing any damage : , that our producers suffer. , i