THE JOURNAL 



OF THE 



MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE 



Vol. XXVII. No. 8. 



NOVEMBER, 1920. 



NOTES FOR THE MONTH. 



It would seem that some misapprehension still prevails 



.regarding the present and future prices of wheat. In the cir- 



Prices for cumstances it is desirable to recapitulate 



"B -J.- u TTTi. i. here the precise position as it was stated 

 British Wheat. . , u o- \ 



m the House or Commons by bir Arthur 



Griffith-Boscawen, Parliamentary Secretary to the jNIinistry, 

 on loth June, 1920. It is not proposed to make any change in 

 the maximum price for home-grown w^heat of the pi^esent 

 (1920) harvest. This price, as already announced, will remain 

 at 95s. per quarter of 504 lb. 



The crop of 1921 is the first which comes iinder the opera- 

 tion of a free market. Home-grown wheat harvested next 

 year, that is, wheat sown in the autumn of 1920 or the spring 

 of 1921, will not be subject to a maximum price. The effect 

 of this will be that if, and so long as, the import of wheat is 

 still controlled and the farmer is thereby deprived of the full 

 benefit of a free market, he will receive for his home-grown 

 wheat of sound milling quality, harvested in 1921, an amount 

 equal to the average c.i.f. cost price of imported wheat of 

 similar or comparable quality. If wheat is not controlled, 

 he will, of course, obtain the full economic price in a free 

 market. He will thus be entitled in any case to the parity 

 price of imported wheat, while, if there is any big break in 

 prices, the Agriculture Bill proposes to give him a guarantee 

 against serious loss. 



As the ^Minister of Agriculture stated in his speech at 

 Bothamsted in J une last* : " At whatever price imported wheat 



* The speech was published in this Journal, July, 1920. p. 320, 

 (33798) P.6/198. 11,000. 10/20. AJ. & S. ^ 



