CEREALS IN GERMANY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 263, 4 October 1933, Page 5

CEREALS IN GERMANY.

PRICE-FIXING POLICY. RIGID RULES FOR FARMERS. “Henceforth it is the farmer’s duty to run his farm primarily in accordance with the requirements of national economy and to cease thinking in terms of private enterprise,” said the German Minister of Agriculture, Herr Walter Darre, when making a broadcast announcement of tire formation of a Reichsnarlistand, or Peasants’ Corporation, which has guaranteed fixed prices for wheat and rye. Herr Darre, who wiH be the head of the corporation, assisted by a Reich farmers’ council, defined the goal to which Germany was driving as independence of foreign agricultural supplies, says the Berlin correspondent of the London Times. Infractions of the price-fixing law will be heavily punished. Persons paying, or even undertaking to pay, the farmer less than the fixed price will be liable to imprisonment and a fine of up to £SOOO, while the ■worst offenders may be sentenced to imprisonment with hard labour, fined an unlimited amount, deprived of civil rights and have their names placarded at their own cost. Fixed prices will only be assured for the amount of grain actually required for home consumption. ft is stated that ways and means will be found to penalise the farmer increasing his cereal cultivation, and thereby' seeking to steal an advantage over his fellows. The law regulating the price of cereals will come into force on October 1. The price will be advanced month by' montli until June, 1934. All forms of speculator! will be strictly forbdden—above all, forward buying—except at prices officially fixed. Violations of this law will entail very severe punishment, including the withdrawal from transgressors of the right to take any further part in the grain trade. The whole of grain production, from the growth on farm and including .milling, distribution and utilisation, is to be regarded as a public service and, as such, to be entitled to special care and protection by the Government. In the coming autumn no farmer will ho allowed to sow as much cereals as last year, since Germany’s grain production, especially of wheat, is already' greater than the country’s need. Instead of wheat, the land is to be used for raising fodder crops, of which Germany’s own supply is much too small. Oil-bearing fibre jilants and barley are regarded as other desirable crops to replace wheat.