BRITAIN AND HER FARMS

Taranaki Daily News, 18 August 1934, Page 24 (Supplement)

BRITAIN AND HER FARMS

UNEMPLOYMENT AND LAND AMBITIOUS MARKETING METHODS.

(No. 4.—By Quentin Pope.) One factor in Britain’s new land policy has been the hope, felt for years past, that the country districts would prove capable of absorbing a large percentage of her millions of unemployed. For over a decade the people of the Old Country have uncomplainingly borne the burden of supporting one-fifth of the employable registered workers. • What better than to place many of these men on the land, to train the young ones to be farmers, to grow the food which now comes from overseas and thus to strengthen the state on every side? That, at all events, has been the thought. But examination of the situation soon reveals a very disturbing sitate of affairs. While the number of industrial unemployed has been growing so has the number of unemployed farm workers. This fall in agricultural workers has been continuing for years past.. At first it was the fashion to ascribe it to the desire to emigrate, to restlessness, to the attraction of mechanical occupations, and the drift to the cities. But in the depression years when these reasons became non-existent and the tendency was for people to return to the land, the decline in farm workers continued. Since 1921 over 130,000 men have left the land. For the first time in many, years unemployment came to many villages, and while the townsmen were looking towards the country as a solution of the unemployment problem the country was looking towards the town. LACK OF MECHANISATION. Further consideration of the issue .will lead to the conclusion that if Britain aims at becoming more self-sufficient in food her policy, to be successful, must result not in more men being employed on the land, but in less. A vigorous advance in agricultural production is possible only if it is mechanised to the degree of its competitors (our machinemilking in New Zealand would be a novelty to most English farmers, vzhile out cheap supplies of electric power on the farm are still vastly in advance of Britain, despite the newly completed “Grid”). If the unemployed are to be placed on the land successfully a policy of small holdings is needed, and if these holdings are to be too small to encourage the use of machinery the farmer will be forced to work longer hours and to obtain assistance from his family. The earlier policy of establishing small-hold-ings on these lines has languished since the middle of 1931, and the county councils who. were charged with the task of administering the scheme have found the effect of the depression in agricultural prices and the need for economy in their own finances twin reasons for curtailing their work. A later policy of starting group settlements where a number of men have farmed on co-opera-tive lines has been more successful, but on the whole the system has not been self-supporting and considerable assistance has been needed from public funds. A SCHEME THAT FAILED. After the war the policy of land settlement was begun as one means of absorbing the discharged soldiers. The plan was not on any enormous scale, but 16,000 small holdings were created in England and Wales. The losses on these holdings up to the end of 1933 amounted to more than £12,000,000. The policy had virtually failed in 1926 when the Small Holdings and Allotments Act was passed, and since that time only a few hundreds of allotments have been added to those in existence before that year. The later holdings have proved much less expensive to the Government, which has contributed up to 75 per cent, of the losses, but there has been very little desire to take advantage of them. If the policy of creating a new peasantry in England is to be adopted it will have to be done on Danish or New Zealand lines, that is, the small farmers will have to be placed on the land in a general scheme, operating in relation to one another, producing the same general class of article, and assembling their produce at one depot for shipment. The co-operative policy in packing, grading and distribution would make closer Settlement a distinct possibility in England, and mean a real threat to the countries which are at present supplying her with food. There is, however, small chance of this being done. The line of policy in the past has followed the course of leaving the small-holder free to produce what he likes and how he likes and to abandon all efforts at government regulation of his product COLLECTIVE MARKETS. This is the traditional English course, and it is only recently that the signs of abandonment of it have been revealed, first by the creation of collective markets, where farmers have been encouraged to bring their produce; second by the passing of the Marketing Acts. The collective markets, one of the most successful of which has been at East Grinstead, have been operated by voluntary workers, and have really formed a sort of produce fair held once a week, reintroducing the ancient custom of marketing day. The Marketing Acts are by far the most ambitious effort ever made to infuse method into English farming, but their possibilities remain unexplored because of the fact that it has taken and will take a long period before the full effects of the new policy can be estimated. Food supplies cannot be altered rapidly, and, especially in such industries as that of milk products, the time needed for breeding alone is likely to mean that between three and four years will elapse before the new arrangements may fairly be tested. Organisation plans also are bound to progress slowly, and for this reason it seems probable that the results of even a successful land policy, reinforced by a vigorous plan of settlement of new farmers on the land will not be apparent until about 1938. There is, however, one land policy under which Britain might solve the problem of many of her unemployed, and that is by the method known as the Home Crofting movement. This plan aims at providing men with sufficient money to pay rent, provide food and clothes, and at the same time keep them occupied. Tire primary aim of the Home Crofts is to raise food for family consumption and not for sale. Each man is provided with about two-fifths of an acre of land, but the areas are contiguous and portion of them unfenced,' and the benefits of machine cultivation are available to aIL The rent, including the house, is 12s 6d a week, and this, together with other expenses, must be met from earnings outside the scheme. Indeed, it is such a plan as Colonel J. J. Esson put forward in New Zealand after his return from a world tour as a member of the Rural Credits Commission. With the present financial stringency none of these policies is likely to be

adopted on a grand scale, but there are indications that there will be more rapid settlement in future. The great difficulties in the way are that only a minority of the town workers are likely to be physicially or psychologically capable of the hard work which transference to the country will mean. Past governments have recognised this, and have pinned their faith on migration. When Lord Lovat visited New Zealand some years ago he brought before the New Zealand administration proposals for the despatch ng of large numbers of unemployed miners to this country, but the British Government was not prepared to make loans for the settlement of these men, and the proposal was not received with enthusiasm. For all the continued existence of a manufacturing crisis today there is a more hope of the English worker being reabsorbed back into his own industry (unless he is a miner or textile worker) than of him going on the land. And the possibility of the new organisation of British farming being ’able to relieve him is still extremely doubtful.

The greatest cause of opposition to the marketing board policy has been the deep-rooted individualism of the British farmer. The new policy has also been unable to afford him any relief worth mentioning. After months of operation the agricultural depression is deeper than ever. The price of pork has been raised scarcely a penny a pound, though the pig scheme was the first to go into action, and egg prices have been as low as 7d a dozen. General dissatisfaction has ruled with the operations of the Milk Marketing Board, and the subject of the summer price of milk was the cause of a minor battle. The operation of the quotas has also been dubious (at the most they may be taken as bargaining points for trade treaties to encourage exports) and a review of last year's operations at Smithfield has shown that the quota system did not raise prices at all, though it certainly did prevent the bottom from falling out of the market. Indeed, average prices for beef and veal were a penny a pound lower than in 1932. In fact, there is a long and hard fight ahead in spite of the policy of easy money to farmers (those who can provide security). And even if and when the quota is applied to our dairy produce it seems that a concentration on quality and keener methods of marketing might accomplish much in undoing any damage that our producers suffer.