CROPS IN BRITAIN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26200, 10 July 1946, Page 5

CROPS IN BRITAIN

SMALLER WHEAT ACREAGE STATE ASSISTANCE SOUGHT (N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent) LONDON, July 8. Due to a late summer, the British grain harvest is expected a fortnight later this year. Reports from agricultural areas indicate that if there is sufficient sunshine this month to ripen the corn and wheat, the yield should be 1,800,000 tons from approximately 2,000,000 acres. This is substantially less than the area under wheat during the war years, when the peak acreage planted was nearly 3,500,000. This year, however, farmers were not directed to sow wheat, and the Government acreage subsidy was reduced by half, resulting in a marked decrease in the area sown.

In view of the present shortage of wheat, the Government is asking farmers to sow not less than 2,500,000 acres for next season. Farmers are now urging the Government to assist them by putting more combine harvesters into operation during the coming harvest, so that the grain may be more speedily marketed and so bridge the gap in imported supplies during August and September. The construction of- more grain-drying plants is also being urged. Crop surveys state that barley and oats have been checked by the cold weather after the spring sowing and by the recent storms, but the yield is likely to be reasonably near the estimates.

Due allegedly to poor seed, the early potato crop is reported likely to be disappointing. The sugar beet crops are also likely to be poor, owing to the effect of the drought in the north, when many fields of. beet had to be ploughed in. All root crops are reported to be making slow growth owing to the late summer. The higher wages rates now payable to farm labour and the increased overtime rates for prisoner-of-war labour are causing farmers to revise their budgets, and the Government is being asked to increase the crop prices in order to meet these extra charges.