FARMING IN ENGLAND

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 86, Issue 225, 24 September 1942, Page 6

FARMING IN ENGLAND

ENTHUSIASTIC REVIVAL First impressions of British farming were described in a broadcast to New Zealand on Monday night by Mr. G. A. Holmes, of Dunedin, one of the six agriculturists from the Dominion who arrived in England in July. Mr. Holmes said that, while much had been done since the outbreak of war in British farming, a lot still remained to be done to bring the standard of farming on the whole up to the level of efficiency of the best farmers. He thought the experience of the six New Zealanders would be most useful along three main lines —the reclamation of derelict or semi-derelict land, the introduction of labour-sav-ing methods, and the administration of economies in the farmers’ purchases of raw materials. Mr. Holmes said a new enthusiasm was seen on every hand to make, farms self-supporting in stock foods and the production of the maximum possible yield of grain, potatoes, vegetables and sugar beet. The present grain harvest was an all-time record. Importations of food products to Britain had been drastically reduced, but Britain would not starve in this war, thanks to the revival of her agriculture. The area, additional to that of pre-war areas, under the plough in the past season had reached a total of nearly 6.000,000 acres. About 400,000 acres of sugar beet had to be lifted this season and about 1,000,000 acres was sown in potatoos.