A MILLION ACRES

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4814, 24 July 1939, Page 3

A MILLION ACRES

BRITISH RECLAMATION PLANS. A million acres of farmland in Britain, put down to grass or neglected in recent years, are to be reclaimed at once for the growing of arable crops, wirtes the agricultural correspondent of the Daily Telegraph and Morning Post. It is anticipated that the Minister of Agriculture, Sir Reginald DormanSmith, will be able shortly to disclose the first plan for the rehabilitation of home agriculture which will affect all

farmers and give increased confidence to those who realise that, in emergency, our home production of food must be increased to the maximum. It is understood that the Minister will be empowered to seek powers tc put into operation the No. 2 emer' gency plan for fostering greater output of home-grown food. This can be described briefly as follows: — Substantial bonuses for farmers and landowners who at once put approved pastures under the plough and reclaim land which has become little

better than rough grazing. Assistance granted only for pastures and fields which obviously can be more profitably utilised in the growing of cereal and root crops, and which have been let down to grass during the past decade.

Proposals that include the immediate ploughing up and seeding with either root crops, such as mangolds, turnips and sugar beet, flax or “catch” crops.

With this large new area of freshly broken land cleaned it can be uti-

lised next autumn for the sowing of such cereal or other crops as might then seem desirable.

A further plan is to arrange a surplus supply of farm tractors to be held as a reserve store to serve in an emergency and to replace casualties during a campaign of rapid ploughing-up and cultivation. The number of tractors now on the farms is approximately 50,000. The reserve to be built up may be 10,000, but it jvould be under strict Government control.