FUTURE OF FARMING.

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 33, 9 February 1927, Page 11

FUTURE OF FARMING.

DEFINITE BANKING OPINION,

"Evening Post," 9th February. So long as boys and girls in their hundreds of thousands are annually drafted from the school into shop, office, and factory, or otherwise diverted from basic food production, there will'be less mouths to nil and- less food to fill them. The subject is dealt with by the National City Bank of New York in a recent review of tanning; This authority points out that, notwithstanding that producers of the chief staples of agriculture complain of inadequate prices for their products, voices of authority continue to sound a ■warning that scarcity of foodstuffs.is not far distant, unless scientific research, shows the way to an intensification of production. ... In view of the non-fulfilment as yet of the theories of Malthus (1798) and the warnings of Sir William Crookes (1898), it might seem that men of science would be cautious^ about advancing. pessimistic views on this subject, but such views continue to be offered from time to time. Population tends to increase in. geometrical progression, while increase ia. yield of food from a given area is Subject to the law of diminishing returns; but good cultivation will produce a crop at lower unit cost than poor cultivation, by reason of a larger yield per acre, and it would seem to bo probable that: ocientifio research may enable the farmers to go much farther in the accomplishment of such results." The Bank remarks that in the United States although farmers produce less per acre than Western Europe, yet they produce more per man; But great emphasis is laid upon increasing the productivity of the soil, replacing the elements required withdrawn by. crops from what, was so recently, as compared with Europe, pure virgin soil. ....." ...'..'

Danger of, over-production is not it} be feared :frbm the increased production from greater use of fertilisers. Quotation made from a recent statement of Professor Falconer, agricultural economist, Ohio State University. This authority holds, that "inefficiency in production is no cure for low prices. Experience and research have shown that farmers with high yields make greater profits than their neighbours with low yields. On high-priced land high yields are more economical to produce than low yields. If. a reduction iri output of a particular crop seems desirable,' it would be better a to reduce the acreage or for individual farmerß to abandon the crop entirely than to reduce the yields." The National City Bank/ agrees that more effective organisation among the farmers is necessary to enable liiem.-to deal effectually with changing and uncertain conditions and to.establish orderly production.' But it also points but that a mere policy of price mainteHance, - with or without Government aid, will not "prevent continual pressure upon farmers, who do not adopt the best methods. The most economical practices are bound gradually to force themselves into use, for the inprofitable naturally will extend their operdiyiduals who adopt them.and find them ations, thus increasing production and causing prices .to tend downward,, while those who dp not adopt them' gradually shift to other occupations. "This is the history of progress in all lines, and one of the conditions to which men must adjust themselves in a competitive and progressive society. .