A Call For Profitable Farming Practice
Page 62
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HOW many farmers, to-day, are throwing away opportunities by sticking to traditional methods? Agricultural science, in all its branches, and agricultural education have done much, during the past 20 years, to help farmers to the best method and practice. The most sorry plight is that of farmers whose land, through being poor or stiff, or both, cannot be fanned under intensive methods and does not pay to farm extensively.
Professor J. A. Scott Watson, Sibforthian Professor of Rural Economy, University of Oxford, has been discussing experiments into ways and means for making farms that just do not pay into farms that just do pay.
In the south and south-midlands of England there is a great deal of second and third-rate arable land that used to rent, before the War, at 12s. to 20s. per acre. Some of this land has been laid down to second and third-rate grass, as one way of keeping down expenses. This method, however, is not always feasible on account of local conditions —the cost of water supply, absence of fences, cowsheds, and so on. The professor proceeds to show, by experiment, how this class of land can be made to pay.
The experiment relates to a typical south-country arable farm of 450 acres, of partly strong clay soil, but mainly a c20 mixture of clay and gravel lying near river level. It is land that can be difficult to work. This farm employed 10 regular men and some casual labour and the land was in fair heart when taken over..
Three tractors were substituted for 12 horses. Root growing and the feeding of cattle and sheep were given up, the only livestock kept being a herd of 450 pigs. The general scheme comprises growing two grain crops in three years. On the heavy land, two crops of wheat are taken and then fallow, mustard being sown on the fallow in August, if the land be-clean enough. On the light land, barley follows wheat, and when the land is fairly clean a one-year mixture of grass seed is undersown. The hay is sold, the aftermath ploughed in, and the land made ready again for wheat.
The farm has been charged with full rent (3iper cent. on all improvements and working capital) and it has borne management charges of £200 a year. The profits, over and above interest on capital and management costs, have been practically nil. The practical point about the experiment, however, is that it converted a farm from several years of heavy loss into one that provided a living and paid its way.