BACK TO THE LAND.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 129, 27 November 1909, Page 13

BACK TO THE LAND.

An interesting experiment is being mad© by a group of farmers at Sleaford to establish the manufacture of beet sugar in England. It is hoped, says a writer in the Chronicle, that a company may be formed which will enable these farmers to erect a factory and put 2000 acres under cultivation. Lord Denbigh is the originator of this scheme, and he believes it to be a matter of really national interest and importance. I'or some years now he has studied the subject of beet culture in a practical and scientific way, and he is indeed one of the few men in this country who have expert knowledge of this form of agriculture in England. "It is. a curious thing," said Lord Denbigh to a representative, "that England is almost the only country in Europe in which the beet industry is not established. The production on the Continent — in France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, and Russia — is enormous. No fewer than fifty million tons of beets are grown every year. What does this mean to agriculture?" Broadly speaking, it means that four and a half million acres are in actual cultivation, ' and that, on the four-course system, eighteen million acres are deriving benefit from beet culture. How is it that the English ignore these facts? We are enormous consumers of sugar in this country— to the extent of twenty millions of pounds sterling each year. Would it not be well to produce some of that sugar for ourselves? "It is one of tha best means by which, we could revive English agriculture and bring the people back to the land. It has been acknowledged by the Germans that the sugar beet industry has been the salvation of German agriculture during recent years. People say that we cannot grow beets in this country because there is not enough sun. PRACTICAL EXPERIMENTS. "Well, practical experiments have disproved, this. In the sixties a Mr. Duncan, of Lavenham, started a factory, and. did pretty well until the Franco-German War and foreign sugar bounties crippled the industry. But things are very different now. The seed stock has been improved, and 50 per cent.> more sugar can be obtaineu from a given acreage now than thirty years ago. "I myself have been experimenting for several years, and, have given prizes each year to some of my tenant farmers for the best crops. The results show tlxat ; the crops did as well, and sometimes considerably better than those in Germany. The cost of growing an acre of beetroot ought to be about £10, and a farmer would make a net profit of nearly £3 an acre. Compared with other forms of agriculture in England that is quite satisfactory. "Putting the case in a nutshell the advantages to be derived from a beetsugar industry in England, are these. It would bring a "great deal of unprofitable land into cultivation. It would offer steady employment in the winter, as well as in the summer months, for unskilled labour. It would be good for farmers, and good for the land itself (because experiments show that beet culture is extremely good for the soil) and, good for the people. "It can only bs done on a large scale, for there is only_ a small margin of profit on fcmall quantities, and local factories, each employing about 100 men, would be a boon to rural communities, while in the fields, as 1 have said, the unskilled labour market, which is now in such a terrible condition, would find its opportunity. "What we want is that the Government and rich public men should study this question and take an interest in it, and help to establish a new industry in England, which would be commercially profitable, and a national blessing, in bringing the people back to the land by a revival of agriculture and rural industries.."

Milk : "As it is and as other see it," is an eight-page pamphlet described as a "soufHetfce from the Wellington milkvendors lest our legislators forget — themselves.'' 1b is a keen criticism, in somewhat exaggerated rhetoric, of "The Health Department's brochure which professes to diagnose the vexed question of milk and. its management." The official definition of 'the word "milk" is curious onongh, and the anonymous writer makes the most of it. But the clever little pamphlet is far from immaculate in -its diction and spelling, and for at least some of its grammatical shortcomings its author must be held responsible,