FARMING PURSUITS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21396, 20 October 1934, Page 23

FARMING PURSUITS

RECENT CHANGES CONDITIONS IN BRITAIN An interesting study of the altering conditions in farming pursuits in Britain has been made by Professor J. A. Scott Watson, Professor of Rural Economy at Oxford University. Writing/. his impressions in the British Joiirnal of Agriculture, he says: " It is obvious to any close observer that our agriculture is passing through a period of rapid change. In some districts the style of farming that was typical twenty years ago is now hardly to he found;, in others various experiments ni farm reorganisation are being made without, however, as vet, any clear' conclusions having been reached upon broad questions of future policy; in still other instances such changes as have been made are regarded, by those responsible for them, as mere temporary expedients, designed- to tide over the lime until the return of some measure of stability in prices. Lastly, there are a good many farmers who have dropped the old idea of working to any hard-and-fast system, and are prepared to niore from year to year in any direction that seems to offer the hope of a temporary profit. It is difficult to single out the new things that are likely to endure, or to speak with confidence about general trends: but somethins of the sort must be attempted at the conclusion of anv survey of contemporary farming. Intensification and intensification "It seems a little paradoxical that, at one and the same time, we should be watching the spread of both the most and the least intensive systems of farming. On the one hand, for instance, a good deal of old grass land in Lincolnshire is being broken up in order that it may grow potatoes, sugar-beet, vegetables and fruit; while on the other, in Hampshire and Wiltshire " Prairie farming" and " Ranching " methods are spreading at the expense of the old rather intensive system of arable farming. In extreme cases anything that may be called farming, is being given / up. " The later processes, naturally, are those that attract the more attention. The decline of employment and the apparent waste of land are obvious and regrettable things that seem to imply the defeat of the present generation of farmers and th 6 decay of the industry. There is, among townspeople, a very general tendency to regard these things as proof of the inefficiency of the farmer. If land is fallow when it might be growing roots, or is under indifferent grass when 'it might be bearing corn, •it is obvious that neither the maximum possible output of food, nor the maximum possible amount of employment, is being provided—and these are still regarded, by many, as the only objects to be aimed at in farming. The commonest of all questions to be asked after a lecture to townsmen, on any agricultural topic., is whether the present generation of British farmers is making the best use of the land. Curious Point of View

<f lt is a little curious that this kind of view is held only in relation to - agriculture. For instance, one of the commonest sights of the countryside is that of the water-mills in various stages of decay. Here we see a potentially valuable natural resource —water power —once harnessed and now running to waste; a considerable capital investment. in the form of buildings and , machinery, lying unproductive and per- ' haps forming a very harmful obstruction to the drainage of the area: a place, too. where formerly several men may have been busily and usefully eraDloyed, but now providing no emplovnent 'whatever. Yet nobody, because )f these things, imputes inefficiency to the milling industry. The derelict mill is accepted for what it is—an inevitable, if regrettable, consequence of technical progress. Yet the position with regard to much of our poor land is precisely / parallel. At one time it was necessary ' to cultivate it in order to produce muchneeded food, and it could be profitably :ultivated because food was dear and labour cheap. Under the traditional lystem of farming, however, it will not now pay the modern wage, far less any rent or profit. The only Economic ilternaitiives are to abandon the land or to carry through a complete reorganisation aimed at a drastic reduction of costs. Any such reorganisation, if it is to succeed, must mean a large reduction of employment and possibly, too, a big reduction in output. Unprofitable High Standard "Perhaps the truest criticism of the British fanner is" just the opposite of that most commonly made. He tends to farm too welly From pride in his craft he adheres to an high standard in unessential things. From se.ntiSnent, or from humanitarian motives, lie tends to keep too many men rather than too few. He is reluctant to face any reorganisation that will involve a lowering of production. The present requirements of the world, in the way of agricultural produce, can be more than met by the land already under cultivation, and;'any probable increase in demand will perhaps be more cheaply met by the use of more fertilisers rather than of more land or more labour.

"Over against the instances whore a decline in output has to be recorded fire many others where the production per acre, or per unit of live stock, is increasing fast. These increases are being obtained, for the most part, not by fneans of additional labour but by the application of new-found knowledge, "ith the potato crop for instance, the enhanced yields are due mainly to the use of improved varieties, to the control of blight and virus disease, and to the use of greatly-increased dressings of artificial fertilisers. The improvement of our pastures, which is perhaps the most notable example of agricultural progress in the past generation, «as boon brought about bv the discovery of improved strains of herbage plants, by the use of a waste product of the steel industry, and by the more skilful control of grazing. The improved X'wltls of our dairy cows are due in Dart to increasing skill in breeding, but fiiMch more to the better use of concentrated feeding stuffs. The rapid im/provement in efficiency of the pig and Poult v/ industries can be largely attributed to spread of knowledge of the Proper balancing of rations. Expanding and Contracting Industries " It is common knowledge that the . demand for certain agricultural products lias expanded in recent years while (hat. for others has declined. In the first category are poultry and eggs, dairy produce,, fruit and vegetables (both fresh and canned) and glasshouse including tomatoes, flowers, etc. Examples of products that a re in declining consumption are oats. „ beef, and—in the more advanced countries—wheat rtnd possibly potatoes. Productive processes in farming are relatively slow, and a change-over from one product to another usually invohes the scrapping of some existing equip- • tnent, or the investment of fresh capital or both. Hence the intelligent antic-i----pat ion of demand is essential to any . scheme of planning, whether on the Part ofe the individual farmer or on i- that of, the industry as a whole. 'I lie supply of information on which to base anticipation of changes in demand, however, is very scant v. It is, indeed, a useful general principle that those things that the rich buv are also those that | the poor would buy if they could, 11 &n<] will buy when they can.