Poverty Bay Herald PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, THURSDAY, MAY 8, 1913. BACK TO THE PLOUGH.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXX, Issue 13069, 8 May 1913, Page 2

Poverty Bay Herald PUBLISHED E VERY EVENING. GISBORNE, THURSDAY, MAY 8, 1913. BACK TO THE PLOUGH.

One of the most insistent problems of the Old Country is the land question. In thirty years three million acres of land m England and Wales alone, has fallen out of cultivation. Britain depends upon the outside world for the great bulk of its foodstuffs, and whilst the nation is straining every effort to defend its shores against invasion it is doing very little to keep its people from starvation m. the event of a blockade. Mr Lloyd George's land proposals have .not so far materialised, but m view of their approach the large land owners «(rt revising the position, several having already parted with considerable areas of their patrimony to meet the public need. Amongst others who ai'e largely concerned m the question is the Duke of Marlborough, owner of 20,000 acres, and he has published a series of most interesting letters to his cousin, Mr Winston Churchill, announcing his intentions. Tlie Duke explains that at this juncture he is "torn by two conflicting emotions."On the brie hand he desires intensely to see rural England once again placed m a satisfactory condition, with a contented and prosperous peasantry producing an abundant supply of food for the welfare of their fellow citizens; on the other hand, he seriously suspects that landlords may be invited to co-operate under a misapprehension m the preliminary stages of a movement intended ultimately to promote their complete disappearance. The Duke severely criticises proposals likely to be made for the elimination of the landlords, and proceeds to show what he considers a better way for the revival of rural England. "I want to demonstrate to you," he writes, "that with wheat at the price of 4s a bushel or 32s a quarter, it would pay the community to put back under the plough the land which was turned into rather poor pasturage during the time of depression. It is difficult to get the farming community to realise this fact; it is difnctilt to persuade people to embark upon this venture, and it is only because I am so anxious — as I have, al; ready said — to see repatriated on , the soil that population which now has lsft it that I urge upon you the importance of considering a matter which is somewhat technical m its detail. What about this land laid down to grass during the last thirty years? It is not by nature fitted for pasturage, it will feed fe*w' cattle and .few sheep. It is not like land m Leicestershire on which an ox can be fattened without any other fbod'r 1 stuffs being given to it. This bad grass land is worth, as rent, between 10s jSind 20s an acre, and after paying rent, I do not suppose it is worth as profit \o the farmer more than 15s an acre at the outside. This figure will certainly be true of the average of most of the bad grass land m Oxfordshire and m the Midlands generally. Now let us consider what* art acre of corn would bring m on land converted from grass to arable. W© have to calculate the cost of production, that which, m a technical phrase, is calkd tillage. The gross cost of production; including rent, interest on the money invested m the farm, ; rates and taxes, wages of labor, indeed everything, is at most £6 an acre. Now four quarters of corn should bo grown on an acre, and can be grown on ah acre; and with corn at 32s a quarter that gives us a .selling price of 128s. A ton of straw comes qff an acre and is worth 35s a ton, making a total of 1635. Deduct the £6, which represents the cost of production, and you have, a : net profit of £2 3s to' set against the profit of 15a derived from the poor grass." The Duke of Marlborough proceeds to show what aai enormous^ difference it would make ; to. thp. prosperity of the farmers of England if it were possible to restore to cultivation the three million acres of com land that have dropped out since 1881. .It would mean an increased profit of several millions 1 of pounds to the faxmer, and ib would further mean — a point as important — a oonsiderabl^ number of extra laborers being employed. Indeed some people think ; that a greater area could be utilised, and that England could grow one half of its wheat supply'instead of only one-fifth as at present. The Duke urges land-owners to go m for the growing of corn, m order to put an end to the lamentable story of rural depopulation. He estimates that the effect of the transference of bad or indifferent grass to airable will be the employment of one extra man to every 30 acres ; that is to say the restoration of 3,000,000 acres to the plough will bring back 100,000 laborers to the countryside. He points out that. England paid between 1905 and 1911 £45,104,000 for corn. She ! can. capture some of. that corn,.;- ,Ajj acre of ground can be-*mad<e to produce £40 worth- of food. "Now 'there n^e millions of money going abroad whioh | can be diverted to our people here at home. You will at once ask : ; 'Why. do we not divert them?' My reply is this"! . the foreigner is better organised." 1 Tri' proof of this he cites the fact so tfftferi noted by overseas visitors that Eng-; land's maTkefc conditions do not .suit; .tl]^ requirements of the present day, and' give advantages to the foreign producer. "What I want to see," says the Dulc,*;,"is a network of markets scattered all over the country, linked up 'togetbew.-by telephone, exactly after the pattern 'of the Labor Exchanges which you yourself did so much to organise. Then I, can p;o to the small holder and I can say to him : 'There is a steady demand at this place.. Why cannot you ensure a. steady supply? Form yourselves into co-opera-tive socieities and you can capture that market.' 1 " "So far as lam concerned," / he continues, "I mean to make an effort \ to show m my locality that it is possibly to grow corn stuffs and vegetables stiii^ able for the markets. The pairk, which you know so well, and on wliieh a bri-. gadet of Yeomr.nry has been trained, will no longer be offered as a training ground for national defence, but will be employed for the purpose of producing

food for the national food supply. A thousand acres or more will be under the plough, and a greater number of laborers will bo employed. Thus an example will be set to the district that it is possible by judicious management to increase the fertility of the soil, to employ a greater number of laborers, and to make tlie countryside more prosperous and contented. I shall do this for a number of years, and when I have succeeded — as I mean to do — I shall then have given a lead to my farming neighbors. I shall be the captain of a different kind of army from that which I have previously had the honor of commanding m Blenheim Park ; but it will be an army quite as useful, quite as necessary to the welfare of the State." That is a very noble resolve and as the success of the Duke's scheme depends very largely upon the maintenance of prices he analyses the position of the granaries of the world, showing that Australia cannot extend her production except as the result of extensive irrigation; that before many years are past there will be a persistent demand for Canadian wheat from United States, and that increased European production is being met by increased consumption on the ' continent itself. The conclusions he draws, interesting indeed to the farmers of New Zealand as well as those of the Homeland, are these : That there is not the least danger of a scarcity of wheat and a gpnseqeunt steep rise m prices, only there will not be frpm one particular source such an overwhelming supply as would dominate the English market; j and that m consequence there is not likely to be such a complete collapse of prices, as that which overwhelmed British agriculture thirty years ago. He therefore makes an earnest personal plea to British landowners to ptit their pastoral land back to the plough.