§ Mr. Yorkasked the Minister of Agriculture how the sum of £40,278 2s. 5d. paid to the Departments of Agriculture by the Land Fertility Research Fund was arrived at; and what proportion of the total estimated cost of the advisory and investigation work this sum represents.
§ Mr. T. WilliamsThe total sum quoted, apart from £28 2s. 5d., the cost of certain small experiments undertaken by my Department, represents the full amounts132W borne on the Votes of the Departments in 1945–46 in respect of grants to colleges and institutions for advisory and local investigation work on the use of lime as a means of promoting the fertility of the soil. As regards England and Wales the payment of £34,816 represented about 13 per cent. of a total expenditure of £286,690 on specialist agricultural advisory and local investigation work, and in the case of Scotland the payment of £5,374 represented about 20 per cent, of a total of £26,402.