§ Colonel MEYSEY-THOMPSONasked the President of the Board of Agriculture whether he is aware that there is a shortage of milk and meat in this country at the present time and that trouble is likely to arise in consequence; and what steps he proposes to take to remedy this state of things?
§ Mr. PROTHEROThe question of the shortage of winter meat and winter milk in the country is closely bound up with that of the shortage of animal feeding-stuffs. Every effort is being made to maintain the supply of both.
§ Colonel MEYSEY-THOMPSONasked the President of the Board of Agriculture (1) why an Order has recently been issued to plough cut a large additional area of good grass land; and whether he is aware that such an Order at this late season of the year is calculated to largely increase the shortage of meat and milk; and (2) if he will consider the advisability of postponing the ploughing out of meadow land until the hay crop has been secured and of good pasture until the autumn, when much milk and much meat will have been cheaply produced from it?
§ Mr. PROTHEROThere has been no increase since June last in the quantity of grass land which each agricultural executive committee has been asked to secure for ploughing and the production of crops. Any postponement of the ploughing until the summer or autumn would not only reduce the production of food from the coming harvest, but by deferring the preparation of the land for cropping in 1919 2129W would still further reduce the production in that year. The Board believe that the increased production of corn, potatoes, and roots, for which they have asked, does not as a consequence involve any necessary reduction in the production of meat or milk.