BARLEY AND WHEAT

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22231, 23 October 1937, Page 11

BARLEY AND WHEAT

INCREASED ACREAGES The increase in the price of barley is meeting with a prompt response in the various barley growing districts. Last season’s price of 4s a bushel was unwarrantably low in view of the price at the time of malting barley in Australia and the increased farming costs in New Zealand. The reasons that prompted the Government to fix such a price were certainly not these represented by barley growing interests. The rise of IOJd a bushel makes all the difference in a crop that was less than marginal in its profit to one that, in comparison with wheat, is quite satisfactory. Barley can be planted with equal safety six weeks to two months later, and it is so much less time in the ground, and. of course, is not so exacting on the soil. The price is subject to 3d a bushel reduction if the barley is not stacked, and there are not many growers who will lose the 3d. The price has given a great fillin to the growing of the crop in the Ellesmere and Springs counties, two of the principal growing counties in the province, and it is believed that the acreage sown in these districts will be the largest for many years. In 1936 the crop threshed in the two counties comprised 4400 odd acres in a total of 9123 for the whole province, and of 20.659 acres for the whole of the Dominion. In 1930 the area in the two counties was 5500 acres, in a provincial total of 9114 and in the Dominion of 18.229 acres. The comparison suggests that the decline in acreage has been in Canterbury principally. The new price may be expected to recover the decline. Although the price of wheat was fixed too late to have any immediate effect on the acreage there was considerable sowing in the districts mentioned in September. Though such a late sowing is not generally favoured the prospects of unsatisfactory results are much reduced on the heavier land, which comprises such a substantial proportion of Ellesmere. The growers will be pleasantly recompensed for their enterprise in the advanced price. But as one farmer put it to the writer on Thursday, “the price had to go up —wheat could not be left where it was, with everything else shooting into the air.” On the strength of this logic he sowed another 20 acres. COLONIAL MARKETING BOARD SUCCESSOR TO EMPIRE BODY The Government’s decision to set up a Colonial Empire Marketing Board marks the opening of an important new phase in the efforts to promote the economic welfare of the British Colonies, says a writer in “The Times” trade and engineering supplement. It has long been felt that improved marketing methods and the organisation of better contacts between Colonial producers and their customers in the United Kingdom and elsewhere would yield valuable results, and it is to meet these needs that the Marketing Board is being constituted. The personnel of the board is now being selected and an announcement of the names may be expected fairly soon. The chairman - will be Mr Ormsby-Gore, Secretary of State for the Colonies, and there will probably be about 14 other members. Some of these will be members of Parliament representing the principal political parties in the House of Commons, and others will be prominent businessmen with special knowledge of Colonial production and marketing methods. The board will have its own office and secretariat, and although it will work in close touch with the Colonial Office it will have independent executive authority and will not be merely an advisory body. The decision to appoint a Colonial Empire Marketing Board was reached after the whole subject had been carefully examined by an Inter-Depart-mental Committee. This inquiry brought to light the extent to which the Colonies had been detrimentally affected by the abolition in 1933 of the Empire Marketing Board, which did such notable work in stimulating the demand for all Empire produce, and the need for some new organisation to fill the gap. Before the war efforts to improve the economic position of the Colonies had been sporadic and unco-ordinatod and the creation of the Empire Marketing Board in 1926 was the first organised attempt to promote the marketing of Empire produce with the assistance of Government machinery. But the work of the Empire Marketing Board depended very largely on the support of the self-governing Dominions. With the introduction of the new tariff system the board’s activities became of less importance to the Dominions, and when their interest waned the board did not long survive. Directly or indirectly the old Empire Marketing Board had done a good deal for the British Colonial territories and its loss was widely felt in those parts of the Empire. The new board will endeavour to replace and supplement the work of the body which preceded it and did so much useful pioneer work over the whole field of Empire marketing. Although the activities of the new authority will be confined to the Colonial Empire alone these territories offer enormous scope; they cover some 2,000,000 square miles and contain a population of about 59.000,000. They are rich in raw materials, and with the lifting of the depression through the rise in prices their economic condition is steadily improving. In 1935 the total trade of the Colonial Empire was approximately £466.000,000, of which exports represented £239,000,000, and the figures have improved a good deal since then. Outstanding features of the new Government scheme for promoting the better marketing of Colonial products will be Cl) the appointment of marketing officers: (2) an organised system of publicity, which will include participation in exhibitions; and (3) research. The activities of the board in its earlier stages will be directed mainly towards the initiation of systematic investigations, not confined to the United Kingdom, into the methods of marketing Colonial produce and the possibilities of improving these markets without seeking immediate direct results from market promotion and advertisement. At a later stage the principal functions of the board

vWll be to help and encourage the producers and distributors concerned to build up efficient marketing organisations of their own. The main business of the marketing officers will be to make detailed studies of the systems of marketing Colonial produce, both in the country of production and oversea; to acquire and utilise marketing information and market statistics; to study possible improvements of the methods of collecting and preparing produce for sale, particularly in the matters of grading and packing; and to maintain contact with distributors and manufacturers and with potential users of Colonial products. The organisation of publicity will probably be on a modest scale, for the total expenditure of the board is expected to be not more than about £52,000 a year when the scheme is in full operation. This expenditure, however, will not include the research activities which may be undertaken. Any ad hoc investigations which arise out of inquiries and contacts made by marketing officers will be financed and supervised by the board; but it is proposed that any expenditure from United Kingdom funds on scientific research arising out of the activities of the board shall be met from the Colonial Development Fund. This will be equivalent to an important increase of the Marketing Board's financial resources. It will be the object of the board to promote the improved marketing of Colonial goods not only in the United Kingdom market but in the Dominions and foreign countries as well.