BRITISH AGRICULTURE

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 7047, 8 February 1910, Page 9

BRITISH AGRICULTURE

THE GREAT WEAKNESS. THE REMEDY. A striking article, showing how Britain might produce the .£60,00-0.000 worth of eggs, poultry, butter, vegetables and cheese which are imported into that country every year is contained iu the current issue of the “Weekly Notebook.” issued by the Small Ownership Parliamentary Committee, of which Sir Gilbert Parker, M.P., is chairman. The article

Bays-.—“We have everything m our favour—soil, climate, ready markets, the .best breeds of cattle, pigs, and poultry, everything but one—system. And. for the want of that we have lost our chamoes. No, not lost, we have literally thrown them away; and, in doing eo, we have not ©von the cold comfort offered by' freetraders that we are getting the goods cheap. Prices go up, but it is the foreigner who imps the benefit; it is we who par. Nothing is impossible which is within out control. And the causes of our, failure are within, our control. An eminent German, authority, writing on British agriculture, asks;—‘"Why has not the British farmer been able to keep in his own hands the entire' supply of those enhanced quantities of butter, eggs, poultry, fruit and vegetables which his markets 'require?' He finds the answer is two causes—in the drawback that the farmers are mainly tenants instead of owners, 'aud because, alike in the production of his supplies and in his method of disposing of them the British farmer has a less perfect system than that of his competitors.' But these are causes which can b© removed. Develop small ownership, to stimulate the energies of the farmer; organise agriculture, to obtain, the fullest results of those energies. It is not impossible to do these things. Remove the causes of failure, and success will take its place.'*