THE FUTURE OF FARMING-II
By SIR DANIEL HALL
[This is the second of three articles on the prospects of British agriculture] N my article in last week's Spectator the conclusion was I reached that the restoration of British agriculture needed something more than relief measures, and that its recurring depressions were due to the system of land holding which fails to give scope to large-scale methods of production. Of 444,000 agricultural holdings in Great Britain in 1937, only 14,230 extended to 30o acres or more. Now farms of 300 acres are no longer units that permit of economic working under ordinary mixed farming without any high-value crops. Further evidence that size is a factor comes from the fact that the branches of farming which during the last thirty years have shown real advances in both methods and output are fruit-growing, market-gardening and cultivation under glass, where large businesses can be built up on compara- tively small acreages. Skill, men, and money have not been wanting when the opportunities were given. The size of the farm should depend upon the nature of the land, for that in its turn will determine the type of farming. But our land has been divided up very much at haphazard, or in response to conditions of farming that no longer prevail. Essential as it may be that there should be readjustments of size in our holdings, it is more immediately imperative that they should be put in order for increased production. One cannot go about the country without seeing that a great deal of the land is starved, that the buildings need recondition- ing, the fields need draining, hedges and ditches should be straightened or removed ; above all the land itself is short of manure and cultivation. Much even of the permanent grass, so sacred in England, should be ploughed up and reseeded. But who is to pay for the improvements? The tenant or owner-occupier has no capital to spare; the landlord must regard such expenditure as a very doubtful investment. He can borrow from the Agricultural Mortgage Corporation, yet it is likely to be long before he can get his rents up correspondingly.
Of course the picture is not all black ; there are plenty of estates which have always been maintained in condition through the generosity of the owner and his affection for his land ; there are college and corporation estates where a long view prevails and judicious expenditure is being repaid. Just in the same way there are examples of efficient and profitable farming all over the country. It is by reason of these de- monstrations of good farming, and of the return from expen- diture upon land, that we are justified in laying plans for bringing the neglected land of the country up to the standard attained elsewhere.
The works necessary for the reconditioning of the land are often beyond the power of the individual owner. It may be futile to drain particular sections of an estate unless the work is extended to neighbouring properties and the main watercourses are cleaned up. Recent legislation has pro- vided means by which such joint enterprises can be carried out, but usually a considerable grant of public money is required. Boundaries between estates often stand in the way of constituting economic farming-units ; there are over- divided farms, there are parishes still largely unfenced ; every observer fond of the land is conscious of waste. Re- clamation in its narrow sense of winning new land from the drowned areas and the moors is beyond the resources of the single landowner, but how often does one see blocks of land covered with thorn and bramble, or gorse, or rushes, which are not to be explained by bad land or bad times.
It must be concluded from the experience of the last fifty years that the landowners are not going to meet the ex- penditure required for reconditioning the land, and though the State may be willing to assist, it can only do so by free gifts, of which the landlords and not the farmers become the residuary legatees. The Government is providing cheap lime and basic slag, but though the returns are reasonably quick, it does not ask for a deferred payment.
All these considerations lead to the conclusion that if our land is to be made capable of increased production it must pass into the ownership of the State. Large expenditure is needed ; neither farmers nor landowners will undertake it ; only if the State owns the land can it get its money back. In order to carry out its policy of production the State must exercise control over the user of the land, not only to reduce waste and neglect but to encourage forms of cultivation desirable for the proper nutrition of our people and as pre- paration for a war emergency. As a matter of logic State ownership of land finds many supporters, even among land- owners ; what is doubted is the expediency or the practic- ability of such action. Land Nationalisation figures in the programme of at least one of our political parties, though it may be agreed that the prospects of securing such legislation are remote, and even if an Act transferring the ownership were passed next week, yet taking possession would have to be a piecemeal affair.
Let us therefore put aside the political aspect of the question, and, thinking only of the needs of the land, set up an Agricultural Commission on the lines of the Forestry Commission, charged with the purchase of neglected agri- cultural land and with getting it properly farmed. Since the War the Forestry Commission has acquired by sale or long lease over a million acres and got most of them planted; the Agricultural Commission would be set a bigger programme with corresponding resources at its disposal. The proposed Commission should be constituted as an expert business organisation, not subject to Parliamentary scrutiny in detail and keeping its accounts on commercial not Departmental lines. It would buy in the open market and by private treaty, and though it might be feared that the price of land would be put up with the Government a known buyer, purchase would probably be cheaper than compulsory acquisition. The State does already own a large amount of agricultural land, carefully managed by the Woods and Forests Department on orthodox land-agency lines, securing sound tenants and treating them considerately, but without any attempt to influence their farming. But the reference to the new Com- mission would be better farming. Having secured, for example, a considerable acreage of the second-class grass- land in the Midlands, it would plan for it an economic lay- out, which might result in one holding of two or three thousand acres, to be worked by machinery on the alternate husbandry system, two or three small mixed farms and a few small holdings where soil and situation were suitable.
While the Commission would count on letting its land, in its early years it might have to farm itself and nurse some of its tenants. To its large farms it would try to attract men who were showing capacity elsewhere, but who were cramped by lack of land or capital. We have not as yet in the country many men experienced in running a 4,000-acre farm on business lines, but they would emerge and produce successors from among the young men, technically trained in our colleges, who would take subordinate posts on the big farms. If farming is to flourish it must, like any other in- dustry, recruit from the young men of the country who may be without capital but rich in brains and energy. Doubt- less some of the big farms would be taken up by joint- stock companies ; with agriculture on a proper footing there is no reason why it should not enjoy the public support that overseas rubber or cotton or sugar plantations receive. In some cases an enterprising landowner, keen on farming, might sell his estate and become a tenant of the Commission.
In sum, the Commission would become an organisation for the improvement of agriculture, in that it would be repairing neglect and extending the operation of the good farmers we possess, to whom it would bring ampler scope to utilise the new powers conferred by science, machinery and organisation.
The Commission could be expected to pay its way even- tually, agriculture can be made profitable, and land apart from its rent-roll is liable to sudden accretions of value from the actions of Government and other public bodies. A Com- mission of this kind starting quietly would gain knowledge and experience and by degrees would build up a corps of men capable of handling the land of the country to meet the needs of the nation.
Previous page
