Catalogue description Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries and Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food: Lime and fertilisers Correspondence and Papers

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Details of MAF 51
Reference: MAF 51
Title: Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries and Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food: Lime and fertilisers Correspondence and Papers
Description:

Papers relating to the measures taken before the Second World War to build up adequate supplies of fertilisers and to give encouragement to farmers to improve the fertility of their land under the provisions of the Agriculture Act 1937, through the Land Fertility Scheme. These consist mostly of files on the creation and administration of various land fertility and agricultural lime schemes including related legislation, research, statistics and correspondence, and a scheme for the state assistance in the erecting of limestone grinding plant. Documents included in this series show the basis and scope of the consultations which took place regarding the stockpiling of essential commodities and the general position as regards stocks and estimated requirements at the outbreak of war in September 1939.

This series contains files re-registered from the SDB file series: MAF 273
Date: 1919-1974
Separated material:

Some files have been re-registered into the LF series; see MAF 274
Held by: The National Archives, Kew
Legal status: Public Record(s)
Language: English
Physical description: 429 file(s)
Access conditions: Subject to 30 year closure unless otherwise stated
Publication note:

Some of the files have been used in the preparation of R. J. Hammond, Food.
Administrative / biographical background:

A few years after the introduction of the 1937 Land Fertility Scheme, the demand for agricultural lime had increased to the point of outstripping production and, in 1941, a scheme was put into operation for giving State assistance in the erection of additional plants for grinding limestone and chalk.

Prior to the Second World War the stockpiling of essential commodities was primarily the responsibility of the Board of Trade, and the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries was in close touch with the Board advising on fertiliser requirements and making recommendations on procurement.

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