1921.] Prices of Home-Grown Wheat. 895 



The following letter, dated 15th December, 1920, was 



addressed by the National Farmers' Union to the Minister of 



^ , Am-iculture : — 



Gorr6S'DO'n,ol6iic6 



•1.1. -St 3.' 1 Mv Lord, — At a meetino- of the Council 

 with the National ^ ^- i -r^ . tt • i n • 



. „ • 01 the National Farmers Union held this 



Farmers^ Union as , , ^, ^ p xi t:> i a • 



. _ . _ „ day, bv the courtesy or the Kovai A on- 

 to Prices of Home- *; / ^ ^ • ^ n i :3 x" at -tn 

 «ri. 1. cultural Society oi Enoland, at No. 16, 

 G-rOWn Wheat. -o ji? ^ o xxr rT^ .1 ^ ^^ • 



Bedford Square, vY.C.l, the loUowmg 



resolution was unanimously passed : — 



" The National Farmers' Union beg to call the attention 



of the Minister of Agriculture and the Food Controller to 



the difficult position in which farmers find themselves in 



disposing of their wheats. 



On ]March 11th last, the Prime Minister announced in 

 the House of Commons that the Government had decided 

 that so long as wheat was controlled and thereby deprived 

 of a free market the controlled price of home-grown wheat 

 of sound milling quality should be the monthly average c.i.f. 

 price of imported wheat, provided that the price so paid 

 should not exceed 95s. per quarter of 504 lb. 



Up to this date, the average monthly price of imported 

 wheat, according to the purchases of the Wheat Commis- 

 sion, have exceeded 102s. per quarter of 480 lb., and the 

 time has not, therefore, arrived when the British farmer 

 should be required to take less than 95s. per quarter for 

 his sound milling wheats; yet on Afark Lane on ^Monday 

 last, prominent millers were quoting 80s. for the choicest 

 samples of native wheats. 



Farmers who have threshed their wheats have done 

 so in reliance upon the announcement of the Ministry of 

 Food, published on the 18th September last, informing them 

 that they had nothing to gain by holding them. 



'* There is no immediate prospect that the position will 

 improve. On the contrary, there is the danger that it will 

 grow worse. 



" With a view, therefore, to assisting the farmer to obtain 

 the price w^hich he has been led to expect, the National 

 Farmers' Union make the following proposals: — 



"1. That millers should be required for a period of 



one month to use an admixture of 20 per cent, of English 



wheat. 



"2. That the percentage of extraction should be again 

 lowered so as to encourage the use of native wheats. 



A 2 



