Poverty Bay Herald PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, THURSDAY, MARCH 1, 1917. BRITISH AGRICULTURE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 14235, 1 March 1917, Page 2

Poverty Bay Herald PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, THURSDAY, MARCH 1, 1917. BRITISH AGRICULTURE.

The chief, domestic problem fn Great Briton to-day is .liow to increase the^ production of foodstuffs within the' British Isles. Submarine depredations have made the people realise how v piously they are dependent upon countries "overseas for their daily bread, and" how great is the need that agriculture • should be fostered' in the United kirigdoin aifcl U\j&' country be made self-supporting. The Department of Agriculture, under an experienced betid m Mr Protherd, is doing its best to induce farmers to go moi'e extensively into the "growing of : \vheat"and other oorc<ils, and by offering, as the New Zealand Government has done, minimum price?, for a series of years guarantees remunerative return for the. tilling of /land-. The results' of last year's farming operations have been disappointing, the wheat yield showing a diminished return, but this is. largely [due to exceptional' climatic conditions, and it is' hoped, with the grass land under the plough next summer should see abundant and bountiful harvests m. Britain. At the pame ' time there is a great deal of leeway to make up to restore agriculture to its former proportions and the principal difficulty is the shortage of' farm -labor ■ dve 1 , to so many men having gone to the war. It is pointed • out by Professor Somerville, professor t>f Rural Economy at Oxford, m an interesting article m Blackwobds, that since 1846, when the Corn *Laws were repealed, agriculture baa, m the main, been left to shift for itself. Helped by .the 1 good prices •••■of.- the fifties (Crimean war) and sixties, (the great increase; of gold) farmers m Britain did j well, even \Vithout fiscal support, but the tide set strongly against them m the seventies. In. that ,dacade r the prices of all commodities were"; depressed by the commercial collapse that followed •* reck-, less speculation. The seasons, too, we^e bad, the harvest of 1879 beings the worst on record. Then came a great increase m the imports of wheat from North 'America, forcing prices to a low Idvel and compelling farmers to withdraw wide areas from arable cultivation and lay them away to grass. . The- area m permanent grass' m Great Britain amounted m 4916 to 17£ million, aeres,- as compared with less than : 13- "million acres m 1873, while the area under tillage shrunk m the same period from a little over 18 million acres to les s than 14-£ million acres. The land under wheat was reduoed m these 43 years from about 3^ million acres^td"' less than 2r million acres and practically all tillage crops showed o*l greater or less degree of shrinkage, the only exception of importance being potatoes, which increased slightly, due £p the fact that this food product is comparatively ,ftee:from the "competition ofi import*. With the increase of 4-^---million 'rfcres m the area of 'grass landi one might have expected a corresponding increase m flocks and herds, but, singularly to «ay, this- has 1 not been the .case, for whereas- qattle have increased by a million and a half, the number of sheep has decreased by 4^. millions. Horses were more numerous last year than m 1873 but the pig population has diminished by 186,000. The broad fact emerges that m 'the 43 years* preceding 1913 Great "-Britain lost about: acres of till^^el crops, including l^lhillion acres - of ; wheat, arid -fwdduced no more meat, fhough no doubt she pro-' doced a larger quantity of- milk.- Ana* her. population m the meantime; with' its food demands, vastly incratsed. Tlie present position is that Britain produces about one-fifth "of the wheat it consumes, something more than half the meat,' a quarter of the butter and margarine', a fifth of the cheese, and nearly all the milk. It is m regard to wheat that the position is so unsatisfactory, and it is not pleasant to contemplate the fact that the Homeland can only feed itself with bread for ten weeks. It is clear that under these conditions, with the menace to the mercantile marine and § the" diminished /.quantity of shipping" available for the transport of foodstuffs a great effort must be^madei not only to -recover for wheat the area that has been lost since thd early seventies but also to- raise the production 1 per^ acre; ' Committees have reported recommending the breaking up of grass land,- the greater use of agricultural machinery, the sowing of improved varieties of seyed, and the establishment of minimun/' prices, and it is .seriously proposed to compulsorily bring the deer forests of Scotland, covering 3^- million acres, into occupation as pastoral country for sheep and cattle excepting such portions as can be converted to agriculture. Piro^ 'ttsaor Somerville brings the scientific mind to bear on the; problem and shows jfchat there is one' way. m which an immediate and large increase* m production can be secured, namely, by the use on ' British land of the- whole of the sulphate of ammonia-- that' I ' is prpduced^fA tha country. This substance is- a by-> product m the manufacture of g^as 1 , coke, shale-oil, etc.. the annual output- being nominally 400,000 tons; In 1915 Britain exported 294 ,0C0 tons 'of this product, mainly to 'foi'eign countries. Vlt* should be 1 at home and appliejd to the two million acres of .British, wheat crops. Professor Somerville maintains that if this were done 2£ million quarters more .wheat could bet. produced,, an addition of 50 'per cent, to the present 'home-grown supplies. He urges strongly that the export should be stopped, and.also the esprit of basic fdag, of whic|j> ! 40,000 toils wns sent out of Britain m 191&. This manure Is- chiefly used on pasture m idoses that' may be averaged at scwt.. per aare, and 1 the professor contends that itai iifcitisatibn on British 'fields would producd 3 million pounds annually more meat. The ScottiahiCoromitteeof AgrieJulwag so oonvinved of the adya^itagiSß of Applying basic alag to grass lands that

L mum' tlu» .subject 1 1 if first of ils e-'jommendations. Professor Somerville ' uggests that the Government should my iip the outputs of basic slag; and sul>h:ito of ammonia and distribute them ,-mougst farmers. He urges penalties V»r the farmers who <\o hot fully utilise heir lands m thi s critical hour of the i ia,tion's n°ed. "JJarmers," he "says, "ai'e \6 more #lfish'?^!f#^her sectfti#--irF he industrial community, but some of them want reminding that the- land I rhich they handle is the prime agent of ' n'oduction, and, as such, their control jver it carries gi*eat national responsi- ' jilities. It is to be doubted if;, many farmers have, m the past, thought much *bont this aspect of, their '■ business, I though there has been healthy personal rivalry m regard to crops and stock. As !i farmer myself, I quote with some diffidence a- passage from Professor Dauheny's Lectures on Roman. Husbandry : 'Agriculture, Cato begins by Remarking, is preferable to merchandise, as being less hazardous,, and to usury as being- a more hoh6rable occupation.' While, our ancestors regaVd a usurer as more degraded eveoittheni a robber, tHey''considered it the*: highest honor that^could be paid. tct J a\citifeen to call him a. good farmer, and indeed the'beat'Sblxiiers and the bravest citizens haVee-vex been taken from the cultivators "of the soil.' " This is a character that- British- farmers should, be encouraged to^merit.''' .. s