CONDITIONS IN POLAND

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23045, 23 November 1936, Page 16

CONDITIONS IN POLAND

SIR J. RUSSELL'S OBSERVATIONS MILK FOR INDUSTRIAL WORKERS PROGRESS IN ENGLISH FARMING (From Our Own Correspondent) (By Air Mail) LONDON, Oct. 24. Sir John Russell, director of the Rothamsted Experiment Station, who recently visited Poland, returned to England with some interesting facts. He found that men working on farms get practically no cash wages—only about Is a week—and they are paid almost wholly in kind. They get 30cwt of grain a year, half an acre of ground for potatoes, food for a cow, and fuel. Thus the Polish farmer's wages bill is met mainly by the produce on his farm, and so far as wages are concerned it does not matter to him if market prices are high or low. Poland is sending increased quantities of butter, eggs, and bacon to the English market, and it is not surprising that she can afford to unload them at low prices.

£60,000 FOR ADVERTISING MILK A sum of £60,000 has been allocated by the Milk Board for another advertising campaign in England. Part of this sum will come from the Government grant. The keynote of the appeal to the consumer will be nutrition, a factor in the national welfare which is more than ever coming to the forefront. Recent results of inquiries by international medical committees of repute have furnished the board with fu , ab " nd ance of emphatic evidence that milk is essential in compiling an adequate diet. As before, newspaper advertising and posters will be the main avenues of approach to the consumers.

Hand in hand with this publicity effort will run an intensive industrial campaign. The aim here is to introduce the regular milk ration in factories, mines, workshops, etc. This movement has proved very successful up to date, a total of 75,000 gallons per month having been reached. Improved trade conditions make such an effort full of possibilities. The campaign will be over six months, and a special staff will be employed, working in selected areas, particularly in London, Newcastle, the Midlands, and West Riding and Lancashire. It is agreed that the board's publicity efforts have had effect on liquid sales, but it is difficult to express the result in actual figures. The board's statement in March last showed that in the year 1935-36 there had been an increase of over 6,000,000 gallons compared with 1934-35. Provisional figures for the immediate past 12 months disclose a rise of 4,750,000 gallons. ENGLISH CEREAL YIELD

The Ministry of Agriculture estimate that the average wheat yield in England and Wales will be 15.7 cwt per acre or 2cwt below the average of the last 10 years. Most reports indicate a fairly good barley crop, but discoloration is prevalent in many areas. The yield per acre is estimated at 15.8 cwt, or Jcwt below the 10 years' average. Estimates of the oat crop show an average of 14.6 cwt per acre, against 16cwt last year and 15.8 cwt in the 10 years 1926-35. Potato yields, the Ministry state, will be slightly below average. Turnips and swedes are estimated to yield 12.7 tons per acre, or 2.7 tons more than the estimated average last year. Sugar beet is expected to yield 8.1 tons per acre, which is one ton less than the yield last year. Mangolds, at 17.8 tons per acre, will yield about half a ton less than last year. APPLE TRADE "HISTORY" History has recently been made in the apple trade, consignments of Eng-lish-grown apples being for the first time disposed of at the London Fruit Exchange. The consignments were not large, but the fact that they were able to take their places with Empire and foreign fruit at what is claimed to be the world's largest and most up-to-date fruit auction sales, and in the process pass favourably under the scrutiny of some of the leading buyers of England, is considered by British producers a most important event, and one of big significance to small and large grower alike. Mr John W. White, senior deputy president of the National Federation of Fruit and Potato Trades, is reported to have said that if every dessert apple in the Kingdom of a quality fit for sale could be brought to London for sale, the total would still barely meet half the requirements of London alone. "Until the ever increasing acreage being put down in this country comes to fruition —and it will take many years—it is hardly fair," he said, "to attempt to 'starve' the consumer by the imposition of high tariffs. England must concentrate on the dessert apple." The following figures are instructive as showing the rapid increase of homegrown fruit on the market. In 1933 the estimated quantity of raw fruit consumed per head of population was 81.81 b. In 1934 it touched 88.51 b, and in 1935 95.61 b. In 1929 England imported 171,000 tons of foreign apples, but this dropped to 68,000 in 1934. The imports from Empire countries were 116,000 tons in 1929, and 225,000 tons in 1934. The totals of home-grown apples sold (excluding cider apples) were 320,000 tons in 1929, and no less than 403,000 tons in 1934. SHEEP FOR RUSSIA

It is estimated that the total number of sheep embraced within the purchases made recently in Great Britain for Soviet Russia will be around 4000 head. The breeds include Romney Marsh, Lincoln, Oxford Downs, Hampshires and Cheviots. The cost will run to from £40,000 to £50,000. A Red Poll bull, bred in the royal herd at Sandringham, has won the Championship at the Royal Cattle Show at Perth, Western Australia, for the second year in succession.

Export certificates were issued recently by the National Pig Breeders' Association for a large white boar, exported to Poland, a Tamworth sow for France, a large white sow. for Kenya Colony, a boar of the same breed for Malay, and a large white sow for Australia. These bring the total number of certificates issued during the year to 180. BLACKENING OF POTATOES

An extensive investigation is to be made in England of the problem of the blackening of potatoes on cooking or steaming. The Potato Board recently had the matter under review and decided to embark on a large-scale attempt to solve the problem, in cooperation with other authorities. The main part of the scheme involves the collection by the board's inspectors of a large number of samples drawn from a.]} parts of Great Britain, each accompanied by a full report on the history, etc., of the crop. These samples will be examined at the laboratories at South Kensington and, from a different standpoint, at the Physiology Research Institute. Reports will be collated at the Rothamsted Experimental Station. A three-year programme is contemplated, and simultaneously the more fundamental aspects of potato physiology in relation to blackening will be studied by a biochemist attached to the Physiology Institute's staff, from funds provided by the Potato Board. This co-operative investigation should show conclusively the environmental or other factors associated with the blackening tendency and point the way to any practicable steps which may be taken to deal with a very real trouble.