§ 28. Mr. GEORGE LAMBERTasked the President of the Board of Agriculture if he has received protests from Devonshire against fanners and pig-breeders being obliged to sell good barley at £ 16 a ton and compelled to buy a nondescript mixture called "pig meal," with no analysis, at £ 21 to £23 a ton, which mixture they are compelled to purchase to keep the pigs alive; and whether some alteration can be made so as to ensure proper pig food to be obtained or the growers food used?
§ The PRESIDENT of the BOARD of AGRICULTURE (Mr. Prothero)The Board have received protests of the character referred to, and have been in communication with the Ministry of Food with a view to the issue of an Order requiring vendors of mixed meals and other compound feeding-stuffs to disclose the exact composition of such mixtures. As I stated in reply to a similar question by the hon. Member for the Maldon Division on the 11th instant, the Board do not agree that the only alternative food is the inferior article named. The prices of home manufactured cakes and meals are 840 fixed by the Cattle Feeding-Stuffs (Maximum Prices) Order, 1918, made by the Food Controller and dated the 7th February. There is a shortage of feeding-stuffs, and there are difficulties of distribution; but some of the materials quoted should be obtainable by pig feeders at prices considerably less than £21 per ton. My hon. Friend the Member for the East Grinstead Division is doing everything possible to remove the difficulties of increased pig-production, which mainly arise from the actual shortage of feeding-stuffs.
§ Mr. LAMBERTWill the growers be allowed to use their own barley?
§ Mr. PROTHEROI am afraid the right hon. Gentleman must address that question to the Food Controller.