§ Mr. Gallacherasked the Minister of Agriculture whether, in view of the fact that his Department was taken by surprise when the 4th September returns showed that undersowing to grass last spring had almost nullified the increase in the arable acreage obtained by ploughing up 800,000 acres, he intends to exercise closer control of the cropping of all land in order to increase the production of food for direct human consumption and to prevent the recurrence of such a dislocation of his cropping programme?
Mr. HudsonThe hon. Member is under a misapprehension. I am hopeful that, as a result of the current ploughing programme, the tillage acreage in the United Kingdom will be increased by about 750,000 acres, and the arable acreage, which includes temporary grass, by a substantially larger amount. As to the second part of the Question, closer control over cropping is continuously being exercised by the county war agricultural executive committees as the food production campaign develops, in order to secure the maximum output of food for human consumption.