Evening star., 1942-11-01
THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON D. C., NOVEMBER l. 1912.
An-Time Record Crop
In Britain Hailed as
Major War Factor
Huge Harvest Releases
Cargo Ships to Haul
Troops and Supplies
BY BRENDA BENDIXSEN,
Foreign Correspondent Of The Star and
North American Newspaper Alliance,


Foreign Correspondent of The Star and
North American Newspaper Alliance.
LONDON, Oct. 31.-Britain has
won one of the greatest production
victories of the war in the all-time
record harvest gathered this year.
One old midlands farmer called 1t
a harvest which people will talk
about for years to come" Minister
of Agriculture r. S. Hudson called 1t
something more than that. He
stated that it might we'll be a
critical factor not only in the his
tory Of this country, but in the his
tory of the world"
It Is a critical factor in terms of
shipping space freed for carrying
more tanks to Russia by Arctic con-
voys, for battling more planes
through to Malta, for transporting
men and material to the hot Afri-
can desert, for striking at the Axis
in all theaters Of the war.
To accomplish this, miracles of
planning, organization and science
have been necessary; that, and plain
hard work have transformed Britain
into a mighty farming land. Be-
fore the war she raised less than
40 per cent of her foodstuffs and
even then had to import 5000, 900
tons of animal feeds to produce
meat, milk and eggs. OF her SIS ,OO0,-
600 acres, only 10000, 900 were under
the ploW.
Arabic Acreage Increased.
Today the arabic acreage has in
creased to $4,000 900 acres, or 80 per
cent of the total area of the coun-
try. Today Britain is raising about
10 per cent of her food requirements
Her wheat acreage is up one-third
and is expected to be up by 80 per
cent by 1943. The ordinary good
British farmer now gets 40 bushels
OF wheat an acre, many of them
get more than so and some cham
pion farmers get 80 or more. This
compares to pre-war average OF
33.
The potato acreage has increased
10 per cent, making Britain self
supporting in that vegetable. The
acreage devoted to oats has risen
from 2,500,000 acres to 100000 and
farm vegetables have risen from
100000 to $4,5O0,00O acres.
These extra acres have been
squeezed into every available corner
of Britain. Park lands, golf courses
grasslands have been ploughed up
Thousands of acres of land have
been reclaimed. In fact. in sever
months, under war conditions, the
land reclaimed is equal in area tc
the Pontine marshes, which took
Mussolini's Fascist efficiency 13
peacetime years to drain.
Five-mile River Dug.
In the Brue marshes in Somerset
alone $4,000 acres have been won
back to cultivation In this area a
new river, miles long and 200 feet
wide, was dug to drain away water
pumped out at the rate of 1,100 tons
a minute by four large pumps. To
cut the river 100000 tons of peat
and clay were removed. At Swaff :
ham Fen in Cambridgeshire. what
was once the bottom of lake is
now huge field Of potatoes. =
The cultivation of the 4new mil
lions of acres of land created a
great manpower problem in an Eng
land where much farm labor has
already been drained Off for the
armed services. The problem was
partly solved by replacing some of
the regular labor with temporary
workers. Women of the land army
did magnificent job. aided at har-
vest time by children let out of
school specially to work in the
fields, by city workers trying a
country job in their valuable week
ends off and by soldiers on leave,
British, American, Canadian-all the
United Nations.
However, a far fuller solution was
found in the tremendous develop
ment of mechanization in agricul-
ture. Today. Britain is by far the
most intensely mechanical farming
country in Europe
Tractors in Use Doubled.
When the war began she had
only about $4,000 tractors. She now
has 1000, or one tractor for every
four -fifths of a square mile. Before
the war there were fewer than 100
combines in England, now there are
1880.
1t is interesting to note that while
mechanization in Australia. the Ar
gentine and the United States has
gone with a comparatively low yield
per acre, in Britain mechanical ton
has been achieved while keeping
the yield per acre easily the highest
in the world. This is a tribute to
the scientific approach of British
farmers to the use of organic and
inorganic fertilizers.
At the same time fertilizers pre-
viously imported are now being pro-
duced in Britain. For example, 20
new plants were producing lime by
the end of 194l. There was also an
immense expansion Of home nitrate
production. Practically the only i'm
ported fertilizer now used in the
new areas under wheat Is potash.