SMALL SEEDS

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVIII, Issue 23314, 25 September 1945, Page 7

SMALL SEEDS

Good British Demand Opportunity For N.Z. Growers “At the present time Britain offers a golden opportunity for New Zealand to get firmly established as the best source of supply of grass and clover seeds,” said Mr G. A. Holmes, LI.Sc., B.Agr., A.R.1.C., in an interview with a representative of “The Timaru Herald” yesterday. Early in 1942 Mr Holmes went to England as the leader of a party of agricultural experts from New Zealand, at the request of the British Government to assist in the reorganisation of British agriculture. Mr Holmes spent three years in Britain and returned to New Zealand this year. In the course of his inspections of the British countryside, Mr Holmes said he found that the farmers there had a high regard for New Zealand seeds, particularly the certified strains. These seeds gave excellent results in most districts, and there seemed room for an immense expansion of trade with Britain in seeds. In his opinion there was a profitable future lor those farmers who gave more attention to the growing of small seeds. A tribute to the war work of the British farmer was paid by Mr Holmes. Under the tribulation of war and the stern necessity of keeping at bay the threat of starvation, the countryside of England underwent a transformation, he said. Great areas of English countryside had been cleared of thorn bushes, hedges had been cut back and ditches cleaned. The standard of the best arable farming in Britain was, perhaps, the highest in the world, but there was still derelict land within 50 miles of London even after nearly six years of war. Some potato growers in Lincolnshire were lifting more than 20 tons to the acre; there were savoy cabbages touching one another for hundreds of acres in Bedfordshire, but there were stubble fields on the chalk downs matted with couch, and dairymen in the vales expecting to produce milk from old pastures of fescue, browntop and weeds. Wheat Acreage The wheat acreage in England in 1943 was 3,500,000 acres, more than double the pre-war acreage. The area planted In potatoes was increased more than 100 per cent, giving a crop of nearly 10,000,000 tons. Although an extensive ploughing-up campaign was conducted, the number of cattle had been increased and the production of milk expanded. Sheep, however, had suffered a serious decline. Pigs and poultry, which largely depended on imported grain, had also been reduced by about GO per cent. The introduction of machinery had greatly helped in the rapid expansion of British agriculture, Mr Holmes said. Mechanisation of the farm had proceeded apace, and without this, the record acreages of grain would not have been possible. The fact that farmers had incurred heavy expenditure in connection with the purchase of this machinery would be a strong argument in their favour for continued protection for grain growing. While arable land showed evidences of skill, the same could not be said of grassland management. Much of the land sown in permanent grass in 1939 needed treatment. In the opinion of Mr Holmes the land’ needed to be broken-up, cropped for a few years and then resown in a mixture of leafy strains of grasses and clovers. This policy was now being pursued with confidence, favoured by the four-year guarantee of prices for meat and milk. The 7,000,000 acres of additional ploughing would gradually be laid down to grass—much better grass, it was hoped, than the old matted turf which had been ploughed up. "As prophesied by Mr Churchill, British farmers had ‘toiled and sweated,’ but they have every reason to be proud of the effort they made . for victory,” remarked Mr Holmes. “They had to put up with shortage of labour, shortage of implements and shortage of materials. They deserve some compensation for the sacrifices they have made, and it would be unfair if they did not reap some compensation. At the present time the whole community is behind them in their demands for a fair deal that would be translated into a permanent policy now that the war is over.” It was pointed out by Mr Holmes that, during the war years, British farmers.had a guaranteed price for everything they produced, the price being fixed in line with the cost of production. It was likely that they would press for price stabilisation after the war. Agricultural Prosperity “One of the lessons which might be learned from the last six years,” Mr Holmes said, “is that the prosperity of agriculture is inseparably linked with full employment and efficiency in industry. In Britain the factory workers had been kept busy during the war years, but they bought every pound of tomatoes v/hich could be produced. If this full employment, can be maintained, though with less overtime and with fewer women in industry, throughout the change-over to peacetime production, and in the succeeding years, then British cities can consume all that Britain’s farms can produce and all the food that this Dominion can send them. “A second lesson I learnt was that, while the manufacture of goods can be stepped up rapidly, the production of food can be increased only by longterm planning. The world is only now realising its potential need of foods, and especially of livestock products, if there is to be some measure of reasonable equality in distribution. To-day we are seeing the floor of the granary and the back of the meat safe. Unless all forecasts are wrong, we are faced with an indefinite number of lean years. Then there is a third lesson and it is an illustration of an old law of economics, namely, that it is possible, by the application of sufficient labour and capital, _ to transform the most unpromising thirdclass land into a veritable garden. Not a Competitor “I would like to remove a misconception under which some people are inclined to labour,” emphasised Mr Holmes, “and that is that the British farmer is a competitor of the New Zealand farmer. This is not really the case to-day. The main crops of the British farmer are grain, potatoes, vegetables and milk for city supply. He does not expect to produce butter and cheese, nor lamb, excepting some early animals at luxury prices. “Actually the British people will continue to be our best customers. They will continue to eat our meat, butter and cheese and will continue to wear our wool and sow our pasture seeds. Britain is sincere in its desire to foster planned co-operation between the producers In that country and those in the Dominions, for they realise that in the effort to achieve improved standards of nutrition each country has its own special part to play, and we are members one of another.’