I move the adjournment of the Seanad. When I came into the House this morning and found that six weeks will probably elapse before we meet again, I thought it advisable to hand in the notice which you, Sir, have graciously accepted. On previous occasions I had mentioned to the Minister for Agriculture that, in my opinion, the Orders regulating the tillage for the coming season should be before the farmers certainly in the month of September. It has been customary heretofore since the emergency arose to announce these Orders in the early spring, and afterwards Ministers visited each committee of agriculture in February, March and April. Experience has prompted me, and I doubt if it has not prompted the Minister, that that period was too late. Therefore, I suggest in all seriousness to the Government that all these Orders, essential during the emergency as they are, should be announced almost immediately. If the Administration are not in a position to come to a conclusion now, the opinion of this House should help them to do so. From the agricultural point of view I think nothing further need be said, except that in this emergency every effort should be made to produce every item of food that it is possible for the land to give us. In examining the position of our farms and farmers, it is obvious that the plans must be made sometime, and I hold that that time is now. Already some fields are in a position to be utilised for the coming season, and in the branch of farming that relates to tillage it is in my opinion essential that that course should be adopted. Accordingly, I am grateful to the Chair for permitting me to raise this matter and to the Minister for attending.
Adjournment Debate—Promulgation of Tillage Orders.
I wish to say just a word or two in support of what Senator McGee has stated. One would like to believe that the Minister was about to tell the country what his plans were and what he expected the country, meaning the farmers, to do with regard to tillage for 1943-44. No doubt there are a great many farmers who have their plans made in such a way that their scheme of tillage for 1944 will work automatically, but that is not the case throughout the country generally. I was very impressed this morning by the point of view which I heard Senator McGee advance, and that is that, from his experience in his business as an auctioneer, he finds himself faced with the problem of letting very considerable areas of land.
Many people are in this position, that they just do not know what the Minister expects them to do for next year; they do not know what crops the Minister expects them to grow, or what price will be paid for these crops. On my way to Dublin yesterday I saw stubble cleared and I saw farmyard manure being put out. There are men who are prepared to plough now for next year's root crop, but there must be thousands of acres of stubble land yet to be cleared. Perhaps many of the men who own that land do not know what they are going to do with the stubble when it is cleared.
Our problem with relation to the provision of food for people and for animals is becoming much more difficult; the situation is becoming more grave one year after another. I am not going to go into this matter at any great length now. The Minister, I am sure, must have a growing appreciation of the difficulties which confront him as Minister in endeavouring to ensure that there will be sufficient food provided for our people. I have dealt with certain aspects of this matter in the past and I may have an opportunity of discussing it again under different circumstances here. The Minister has the responsibility of giving the country a lead, of telling the farmers of the country what he wants them to do. He also has the responsibility of encouraging the farmers to do their job fully. The important point at the moment is that the farmers ought to know what is in the Minister's mind.
The Minister, and his colleagues in the Cabinet, feel themselves obliged to go around among our county committees of agriculture and to talk to groups of farmers in the spring of the year. I should like to point out that spring is not the best time of the year to sow wheat; it is much better to sow it before December, if that is at all possible. We would like to know what the Minister has in mind with regard to getting the fields tilled and the right sort of crops grown for the next harvest.
Senator McGee mentioned that the Minister ought to indicate to the country what his plans are and if, in the execution of these plans, it is found necessary for the Minister and his colleagues to mobilise the civic sense of the nation to get a proper job done on the land, he ought to do it long before Christmas rather than leave it over until spring. It may be difficult for the Minister at this moment to say all that we would like him to say, through this House, to the farmers. We would like to tell him, however, that the farmers ought to be given a chance of looking ahead and planning their tillage schemes in such a way as to ensure that the right sort of tillage will be done in the most efficient way possible. In order to achieve this the Minister ought to give them some directions as early as possible.
There was one thing mentioned by Senator Baxter which, as one who has a slight interest in industry, concerns me to some extent, and that is the price of crops. It strikes me that the solution of our farming difficulties and of the problem of food production generally lies in our making it possible for the farmer to live economically. I know everybody here is anxious that the farmers should be enabled to live economically. Purely as an industrialist, I want the farmer to live because he is my customer. Unless the farmer is in a position to consume our industrial products, we are going to have a very bad time both in industry and agriculture. When I was outside this House I could not quite understand why we should import wheat at 84/- a barrel and pay our own farmers only 40/- a barrel. Even still I cannot make out why that should be so.
I hope there will be a little more imagination used in the direction of financing agricultural production. It is very important to us in the industrial sphere, at any rate, that those who are, in the main, our best customers should have the wherewithal to buy what we produce. I think the time has arrived when a little more courage should be displayed, when there might be a little bit less of the laissez faire attitude, and a little bit more of imagination and daring in the direction of the financing of agricultural production. An improvement in agricultural prices might result, with benefit to people like myself, who are engaged in the industrial arena, and to farmers generally. I trust that the Minister will give serious consideration to the matter of the prices of agricultural produce.
I am glad that an opportunity has been afforded me of saying a few words on this question. I agree with the Senators who have described it as a very important question. Usually towards the end of September in each year an announcement is made with regard to the tillage requirements for the coming year; that is, the minimum percentage that farmers will be required to till and the prices that will be given for certain crops. As regards the minimum percentage, that, as it happens, has been announced very much earlier for the coming year than was previously the case. This time last year, when the Order was announced for the 1943 tillage programme, it was indicated that it was intended to increase the percentage for 1944. The percentage will be increased for 1944 to 33? per cent. instead of 25 per cent., the idea being that first-crop meadows will be counted in the tillage.
That has been done, as Senators are aware, for a specific purpose. We found from experience that farmers who were traditionally opposed to tillage intended, so far as we could see from inspections, to till a certain portion of the land and go on tilling that certain portion until the war is over and, to use their own words, not to spoil the rest of their lands. We thought it might be a good idea to encourage those farmers to put some of that tillage land down to grass and till new land instead, and, in order to encourage them to do so, it was announced that in the 1944 programme first-crop meadow would be allowed in the tillage. But first-crop meadow cannot occupy more than one-fourth of the total tillage under the minimum percentage rule—I think that point ought to be fairly clear.
There is some delay, naturally, about announcing prices, because we have to wait to form some opinion on the yield of the 1943 harvest. We will not have that information for another week or two. That is absolutely necessary, not only from the point of view of fixing a price, but also in order to consider the various propositions that have been put up for the growing of wheat. Senators know that it is held by some people that we should have a minimum percentage of wheat on each holding; that we should have an attractive price, as mentioned by Senator O'Donnell, or there might be other ways of getting the wheat that we require. It is most essential that we should get enough wheat, as it is a most important crop, and human food must come before animal feeding stuffs.
The position is, therefore, that the percentage is known to farmers. The prices of the guaranteed crops cannot, I am afraid, be considered or announced for another couple of weeks, but it will be made known, I hope, by the end of this month.
Another point raised by Senators McGee and Baxter was that when other Ministers and I go to various county committees of agriculture in the springtime, it is then getting rather late to sow crops. That may be, but my experience has been that it is not easy to arouse any great interest in the tillage programme before Christmas. It is well that the farmer should know how much he should till and that he should know what the prices of the various crops will be, so that he may make up his mind what crop to sow, but I do not think that, if we were to make that final appeal which is usually made in spring—the appeal to farmers to till a few extra acres—before Christmas, it would have much effect. However, I am quite prepared to consider the points raised by the Senators.
Senator O'Donnell said that he failed to understand why any Government should import wheat at 84/- a barrel while paying its own growers only 40/- a barrel. It may be difficult to understand that position without knowing the full facts. We can only hope that the Senator will learn those fine points of economics as a result of taking his seat in this House. I should like to inform Senator O'Donnell that, since 1933, we have paid the farmer for home-grown wheat what we thought was a fair price. We paid no attention whatever to the price of imported wheat. Senator O'Donnell may remember that in 1933, 1934 and 1935, we were paying from 27/- to 30/- a barrel to the Irish grower, although we could import wheat then at 14/- a barrel. In the past few years, we have been paying the grower 50/- a barrel. We had to pay more than that for imported wheat. When this war is over, I hope that we shall be able to continue to pay the grower of wheat a fair price, whatever it may cost us to bring wheat from Canada or the Argentine or anywhere else. That was the consideration with us and it is, probably, a better way of looking at the question, so far as the Irish grower is concerned, than the old Manchester rule of buying the cheapest article in the cheapest market.