Basic Slag Altering the Face of the Country

Mr Howard Chatfield Clarke presided on Monday night at the Surveyors’ Institution over an ordinary general meeting called to discuss the question of the wheat supply. Mr Edwin Savill (member of the Council) read a paper on the subject. He said there was a general opinion that an increase in the area under wheat was desirable. The last few years showed an improvement in the financial conditions of agriculture, but this had not had the effect of increasing the wheat area, the reason being that the bad times had not yet been forgotten. Farmers did not expect a high price for their produce, but they would leave a fair margin to repay the capital and energy expended. The average farmer felt that the less he put into the land, the less he stood to lose, and therefore, instead of putting all his money and energy into a supreme effort to get all he could out of the land, he put in only just enough to ensure a safe but moderate return. The average price of wheat grown in England and Wales last year was 31s. 8d. per quarter. After giving detailed figures he calculated that the net profit on 100 acres would average with wheat at that price 28 s. per acre, per annum. If wheat were 38s. per quarter the profit would be increased to 37s. 6d. per acre, per annum. If farmers could be certain of receiving 38s. per quarter for their wheat they would feel justified in ploughing up a considerable area of the land at present producing less than the return of which it is capable. Much anxiety was naturally felt on the outbreak of war as to the stability of our food supply. The price of wheat rose in a few days from 34s. per quarter to 45s. per quarter. It speedily dropped again to 36s. from which price it had gradually risen to 40s. at the end of October. The Government had been asked to guarantee to farmers a minimum price of 35s. a quarter. It replied that it did not consider that necessary, but at the same time strongly advised farmers to grow wheat, as it was likely to prove a profitable crop. Why should not the Government do the same as they were about to do for the dyeing industry? He would venture to prophecy that in a few months our supplies would be short. He thought that the Government should fix the price at which wheat could be grown at a fair profit. Possibly 38s. per quarter would meet the case. Every farmer should be paid the difference between the average price for the year and the settled price of 38s. per quarter. Every farmer could then know that he could grow wheat without fear of loss, and that the more wheat they grew the more certain profit they would make. The cost of such a scheme to the Government would depend on the amount of guarantee, but it was doubtful whether it need be considerable. A steady market was almost of greater importance than a high one.

Mr Turnbull Brown said that whatever was done in this country the situation could only be saved for a few weeks. The whole question of wheat supply in time of war really came to this, that they had to trust the Navy. The scheme in the paper was a scheme of bounties. If we were to have protection in any form we must either have import duties or bounties. But he did not think we were going to get either yet.

Mr H. Trustham Eve said the cash wages in agriculture increased in 1913 over 1912 by £10,000 a week, and in 1912 over 1911 by £5,000 per week. Since 1911 agricultural wages had increased by three quarters of a million per annum. Basic slag was transforming the whole face of the country and was one of the reasons for not breaking up pasture land. The Government ought to buy a few weeks supply of wheat to keep in hand. The only way to make more profit was to cheapen the cost of production.

Mr A. Steele said that if the same effort had been put into the pastures of the South of England as into those of Leicestershire and the West Country they would be capable of producing double the net profit they now produced.

The Hon. F. G. Strutt said one of the advantages of ploughing up grass land would be an increase in the labour employed on the land. Any farm that was nearly all grass hardly paid well at all, while arable farms had paid him extraordinarily well. The only way for our land to be converted into arable land was to make the main crop, wheat, a profitable thing to grow.