1922. ! 



Council of Agriculture for England. 



219 



COUNCIL OF AGRICULTURE FOR 

 ENGLAND. 



The Eighth Meeting of the Council of Agriculture for Eng- 

 land waB held on 18th May,, 1922;, at the Middlesex Guildhall, 

 Westminster. The chair was taken hy Sir Douglas Newton, 

 M.P., K.B.E., who was electecl Chairman for the year 1922. 

 The Minister of Agriculture, Sir Arthur Griffith-Boscawen, M.P., 

 was present throughout the proceedings. 



Statement by the Minisler. — At the opening of the meeting, 

 the Minister made a statement on the agricultural situation 

 covering the main items of importance since the me< ting of the 

 Council in December last. He referred first to the depression 

 in agricultural prices which had come upon the industry with 

 appalling suddenness. Farmers had, in consequence, been in 

 great difficulties, and landlords had been unable to come to their 

 assistance. Since January last, however, there had been signs 

 of improvement. The help which had been given when things 

 were really at their worst by the payments in lieu of guaranteed 

 prices had certainly come at an opportune time. Of the 187.000 

 total claims, 150,000, or 95 per cent, of the claims made up to 

 18th July, 1921, were paid on 1st January last. Over 5.000 

 more were paid in the first week of January, and nearly all the 

 remaining claims had been paid by the end of January. 



With regard to the question of wages, the farmer could not 

 possibly continue to pay the wages which he was paying a year 

 ago in the face of a 50 per cent, decline in prices. The neces- 

 sary reductions had been carried out through the Agricultural 

 Conciliation Committees, generally, he was glad to say, in a 

 spirit of goodwill and with very few disputes. There were 61 

 Conciliation Committees in England and Wales in place of 89 

 old District Wages Committees; 54 of these had made agree- 

 ments, of which 44 were now current. Most of the agreements 

 were for long periods. 



The Minister then referred to the foot-and-mouth disease out- 

 break, which had been the worst in the country since the year 

 1883. He expected that it would cost not less than I'l.OOO.OOO 

 to stamp it out, although, having regard to the value of (h live 

 stock in the country and the nature of the disease, the money 

 will have been well spent if the disease is entirely oradi -ated. 

 It had been stated that a large proportion of the live stock of the 

 country had been slaughtered. As a matter of fact, there had 

 been slaughtered, as diseased or in contact. 22,000 cattle, or 



