FARMING ABROAD

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12507, 24 July 1926, Page 9

FARMING ABROAD

SOME CANADIAN MARVELS AMERICANS RAVE PRODUCED TOO MUCH FARMERS’ PRESIDENTS IM. PRESSIONS "It xs wonderful to see what Canada lias done under conditions such as we would not care tot tackle out here/' said Mr W. J. Poison, president of the New Zealand Fanners’ Union, yesterday when talking of agriculture abroad. "They carry on dairying, for instance. ,on land which in winter suffers from a temperature of minus 70, which is 100 degrees of frost, yet they are able to export to Europe. We were there in the late autumn, and the land looked -very barren. We were struck by the eight of the appalling little houses in which the farmers lived. Farming must be much harder iji the winter than in New Zealand. A BIG BID "Canada is making a bid for the peoples of Europe, and wo found their immigration agencies in many places. It is a great pity that the public does not realise- how very much better are the conditions in this part of tho world. Then we should get the people instead.” In company with his fellow representatives, Mr Poison visited many countries. They saw black foxes, the products of the farms in Nova Scotia and Princo Euvvnrd Island, and it was suggested to them that this might be a suitable industry for the slopes of the Southern Alps. They found the far* mers in the United States suffering from a period of over-production. They had received a great fillip during the war, when they had a tremendous production and great demand, but this they found very hard to keep. Last year they had produced three thousand million bushels of wheat which was nearly one thousand million more than they required, and consequently they were feeding it to hogs and cattle.

There was a strong movement in favour of co-operative development, which the Government waa assisting. The Me Nary-Han gh an Bill, now before Congress, proposed to set an index price for primary products, and the farmer was to be paid for as much of his produce as was used in the United States at a certain figure. The balance of the produce was to be exported through co-operative associations and sold at world market prices. The lower prioe was to bo subtracted from the total price paid in the United States, that is if there was produced 1.000,000 bales of cotton, 25 per cent, of which was exported and which was sold at half-price, the loss on this 25 oer cent, would he subtracted from the higher price paid for the remaining 75 per cent, and the difference would be what the producer would receive. SOME DRAWBACKS There were manifest disadvantages attached to such a policy. One was that artificial prices would still further stimulate production and add to the difficulty instead of meeting it. This was apart altogether from the fact that any attempt to dump would be resented by the producers in other countries. The English farmers were having a hard time just now. Taxation was tremendously heavy, and as The English farmer was not co-operative in. any way middlemen exploited him. All the farmers complained of reduced incomes and the difficulty of making ends meet. They were apparently singularly lacking in co-operative enterprise, indeed one farmer in Scotland complained that he would have to go out of business because of the difficulties in marketing his produce. Yet New Zealand was able to send produce 12,000 miles, and market it successfully in London.