11 NOVEMBER 1932, Page 6

The state of British farming was put to me graphically

a day or two ago by a man who knows the subject through and through. " The estimated value of the farms of the country, with their. stock, ten years ago was somewhere round £1,500,000,000. If liabilities were measured against assets, I doubt if there would be £1,000,000 on the right side to-day." I take no responsibility for the figures, but if they are anything like approximately correct, Major Walter Elliot has a tougher proposition to handle than any one of his Cabinet colleagues. Major Elliot's speech on agriculture in the House on Monday, by the way, evoked from one old Parliamentary hand who took his seat over forty years ago, the comment, " a future Prime Minister."