§ 30. Mr. PENNEFATHERasked the President of the Board of Agriculture if he is in a position to make a definite statement as to whether farmers will or will not be allowed to retain for the purpose of feeding cattle, horses, and pigs any specified proportion of the potatoes they themselves produce?
Mr. PARKER (Lord of the Treasury)I have been asked to reply. There is nothing in the existing Orders relating to potatoes which prevents a farmer from feeding his own potatoes to his own livestock, and there is no intention of introducing any such prohibition.
§ Sir C. BATHURSTI should like to know if that answer applies similarly to beans, peas, parsnips, and other crops?
§ Major BOWDENWhat happens when a man can buy the food and has the pigs, but when the Ministry of National Service or whoever is responsible takes him for military service instead of leaving him to provide tons of meat for the people?
§ 41. Sir C. BATHURSTasked the President of the Board of Agriculture whether he is proposing to make the spraying of potatoes this year compulsory as a precaution against fungoid disease; and whether steps are being taken to secure this year a sufficiency of sprayers and spraying material for this purpose?
§ Mr. PROTHEROIn reply, I would refer my hon. Friend to the detailed answer given to the hon. Member for the Tiverton Division on 30th January last.
§ 43. Sir C. BATHURSTasked the President of the Board of Agriculture whether, seeing that potatoes are the most dependable of all home-grown breadstuffs in an emergency, and that they can be grown in nearly all soils and climates, and by every class of land cultivators, he is making arrangements for the planting of a definite and exceptionally large area of land with this crop in the present year; and whether he already has reason to suppose that the area to be planted with this crop in 1918 will exceed that so planted in 1917, and, if so, to what extent?
§ Mr. PROTHEROThe Board, in conjunction with the Ministry of Food, are urging the largest possible increase in the area devoted to potatoes, but it is impossible at present to say whether the area planted will exceed that of last year.
§ Sir C. BATHURSTCould not the War Agricultural Committee be urged to earmark a definite area in each county for the production of potatoes, so as to provide against the possibility of a disastrously bad corn harvest?
§ Mr. PROTHEROThe point is a difficult one, inasmuch as the potato crop is itself a precarious one, and the amount of labour required for handling that crop is much larger than that required for the corn crop, but I can only repeat that we are endeavouring by every possible means to increase the supply of potatoes.