122 THE MINORITY REPORT 



for wheat, it has been suggested to us that the State 

 should offer a bonus to every farmer who is willing 

 to break up land which is at present " permanently " 

 under grass, and to cultivate it properly. If this 

 plan were adopted, we believe that £2 per acre would 

 be an adequate sum to offer, the payment to be spread 

 over four years. Payment of the later instalments 

 should be dependent on the land being kept in good 

 cultivation. This combined scheme of guarantee and 

 bonus would assist both those farmers who have 

 grown wheat during the period of lower prices and 

 those who have sown down their land. We do not 

 consider that a system of bonus by itself could take 

 the place of a guarantee ; for there would not be 

 sufficient incentive to keep land under the plough. 



65. There is no doubt that most farmers are at the 

 present time, as they have always been, in favour of 

 stimulating the home production of food by the 

 imposition of Import Duties on foodstuffs. What 

 they want is security against excessive fluctuations of 

 the market caused by the importation of foreign 

 suppHes at very low prices. We do not propose to 

 discuss in this Report the question of protection for 

 home products ; but we assume that if any general 

 system of protecting home products against foreign 

 competition is adopted by ParHament, full considera- 

 tion would be paid to the claims of the farmers to 

 share in such protection for all his products which 

 are seriously affected in price by such competition. 



66. If the import duties were sufficiently heavy 

 they would have the effect of increasing the produc- 

 tion in this country of wheat and of any other pro- 



