The Wanganui Chronicle. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1945. THE FUTURE OF FARMING

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 89, Issue 213, 8 September 1945, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1945. THE FUTURE OF FARMING

J7ARMING depends for its future upon the ability of the farmers to utilise the soil in such a way that its fertility remains constant. Unless this is done the land becomes a wasting asset, leading' inevitably to bankruptcy. A recent estimate places South Africa’s Joss of surface soils t high as twenty-live per cent. It is possible that New Zealand has suffered a similar loss. In South Africa, Australia, Canada, the United States and lhe Argentine this process of soil wastage has been gathering momentum but quite another kind of story has been written in England. "What has been going on there has impressed agricul-ture-minded soldiers who have returned to this Dominion. They have been impressed by the efficiency of British farming. Despite recent statements a proper knowledge concerning this development is by no means as general as it should be. In a preface to a remarkable book entitled “11l Fares the Land.” which merits being considered by every agriculturalist and pastoralist in New Zealand, Ihc Earl of Portsmouth, an authority on English agriculture, lias something of moment to say on the subject of the efficiency of British agriculture. “First of all,” writes the Earl of Portsmouth, “we are a nation of small farmers, yet for those who think in terms of machinery we are the most highly mechanised agricultural community in the world to-day. For those who think in terms of production per man, we were, even in 1937, reckoned by distinguished economists to have the highest production per Load of active workers in the whole of Europe. In size and in great fertile plains, the U.S.S.R. is the country in Europe most comparable with the U.S.A. In displacement of the small farmer and in macliinemindedness the U.S.S.R. is also comparable; yet the small farmers and the farm workers of the United Kingdom are reckoned to have a productivity per head, five times as great as the farm workers of Russia. We were, as well, roughly equal in cash output per acre to Italy. Germany. France and Bohemia, being surpassed only by the small, highly intensive countries, such as the Netherlands and Denmark. Our yield per acre from cereal crops was very much higher than anywhere in the New World and compared favourably with our closest competitors in Europe. For instance, our average yield of wheat was more than double that of Canada or the U.S.A, which the economists continually hold up as an example of countries with whom we cannot hope 1o compete in cereal production. More important to the economists is that the British farm worker, reckoned in terms of relative labour efficiency, in 1937 was supposed to he above the U.S.A., Canada, and all European countries and to feed more persons per head than any of those countries.” The foregoing will provide an antidote to those who, losing sight of the fact that English lands have been fanned for centuries, believe that it can only survive by reason of Government grants-in-aid.

During the war the increase in machinery used on farms has been a marked feature of agricultural development, and on this point the Earl of Portsmouth’s continent is arresting. “Since 1940 the position, though it may not, be gauged by statistics, is even more remarkable as regards British output, skill and initiative on the land, for our net output in Great Britain was very nearly double for 1943 and 1944 the output of 1937. We have done this with less effective labour owing to the wartime call-up; we have done it in the face of transport difficulties, enemy action, and service manoeuvres, shortage of essential supplies and the virtual cessation of imported stock feed. Now the interesting point about this is that before the war, for reasons of autarchy and other politico-economic causes, European agriculture generally was stretched to the limit. It, is probable that both Germany and Italy were producing more from their soil than was good for it, and that other countries had, for the most part, reached the limit of intensive production under their existing systems. Thus the firitisli increase in agricultural output, both per man and per acre, would point, to our being now the leading occidental country as far as farming and horticulture arc concerned.”

In the face of this proved expansion of production in the United Kingdom and the ability of that country to import produce from low-priced countries, to what, extent will lhe relative inefficiency in New Zealand farming be condoned to the extent, of granting increased prices? It, would be unsafe to depend upon there being paid in the future higher prices than are being now paid to New Zealand for her produce. It, would be a wiser policy to assume that there will be actual reductions in prices after the present contracts run out.

The prospective situation can best be met by advancing the technique of utilising the land, and this advance is dependent more than anything else upon having available to the farming industry a labour force that is happy to live in the country, and that, can expect to make a very comfortable living tlferc equal to and in some respects better than can be made in skilled trades in the cities. For this to be accomplished the farm labour force must be skilled to the degree necessary to conduct husbandry operations in a highly efficient manner. It, follows that if this desirable labour force is to be enlisted then all ideas concerning “rouseahouts” must be abandoned and any conception that drifters can do the work of farms in a satisfactory manner forgotten altogether. To be efficient a labour force must, be well housed and catered for socially, must enjoy a community life and must be well paid. That, this problem lias already been solved in some instances indicates that it could he solved in many more where it is not yet satisfactory for a family man. It, is on the rural wages man that the future of farming in this Dominion depends to a very large extent.