Agricultural Development Act 1939
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1939 c. 48 |
Agricultural Development Act, 1939
(2 & 3 Geo. 6.) 48.
An Act to provide for securing farmers against low prices for oats, barley and fat sheep, and for securing a market for barley, for promoting the ploughing up in the year nineteen hundred and thirty-nine of grass land and rendering it fit for arable crops, for the establishment of a reserve of agricultural machinery, for increasing the resources of any company formed for such purposes as are mentioned in the Agricultural Credits Act, 1928, to amend the Agricultural Returns Act, 1925, and for purposes connected with the matters aforesaid.
[28th July 1939]
Be it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
Part I.
Oats.
Subsidy in case of the year 1939 and subsequent years.
1 Oats subsidy payments.
(1) If the United Kingdom price per hundred-weight of home-grown oats harvested in the year nineteen hundred and thirty-nine, or in any subsequent year, is less than the standard price by threepence or more, then, subject to the following provisions of this Part of this Act, the appropriate Minister may, out of moneys provided by Parliament, make to the person who, at the beginning of the fourth day of June in that year, was the occupier of any farm in the United Kingdom which comprised one acre or more of land then under oats a payment (in this Act referred to as an ‘oats subsidy payment’) at the following rate, that is to say—
(a ) if the condition specified in subsection (2) of this section is satisfied in relation to the farm in the case of that year, at the higher rate mentioned in section two of this Act; or
(b ) if that condition is not so satisfied, at the lower rate mentioned in section two of this Act.
(2) The condition which must be satisfied in relation to a farm in order that an oats subsidy payment may be made in respect thereof in the case of any year at the higher rate is—
(a ) that the farm did not at any time during the first eight months of that year comprise any land under wheat; or
(b ) if it did, that the person who was the occupier of the farm at the beginning of the fourth day of June in that year has, by notice given to the appropriate Minister in such manner and within such period as may be prescribed by regulations made by the Ministers, elected to exclude the farm from the benefit of wheat deficiency payments in the case of that year.
(3) In this Part of this Act the expression ‘the standard price’ means eight shillings:
Provided that the Ministers may, by order made with the approval of the Treasury, substitute for the price aforesaid such price as may be specified in the order, so however that an order made under this proviso shall be of no effect until it has been approved by a resolution passed by each House of Parliament.
2 Rate of oats subsidy payments.
(1) In relation to the making of an oats subsidy payment in respect of a farm in the case of any year—
(a ) the higher rate shall be fourteen times the difference between the United Kingdom price per hundredweight of home-grown oats harvested in that year and the standard price, or two pounds six shillings and eightpence, whichever is the less, for each acre of land comprised in the farm which was under oats at the beginning of the fourth day of June in that year; and
(b ) the lower rate shall be six times the said difference, or one pound, whichever is the less, for each acre of the said land;
subject in each case to the provisions of subsection (2) of this section.
(2) If in the case of any year—
(a ) the acreage qualifying for oats subsidy payments at the higher rate exceeds one million four hundred and seventy thousand acres; or
(b ) the acreage qualifying for oats subsidy payments at the lower rate exceeds one million and thirty thousand acres;
the rate at which an oats subsidy payment may be made at the higher rate, or at the lower rate, as the case may be, in the case of that year shall be reduced by an amount bearing to the appropriate rate determined by the preceding subsection the same proportion as the excess bears to the acreage qualifying for oats subsidy payments at that rate:
Provided that no such reduction shall be made if the acreages qualifying respectively for oats subsidy payments at the higher rate and at the lower rate taken together do not exceed two million, five hundred thousand acres.
(3) In computing the amount of an oats subsidy payment which may be made in respect of a farm in the case of any year, if the total area of the land comprised therein which was under oats at the beginning of the fourth day of June in that year was not an exact number of acres, the odd fraction of an acre shall be disregarded, and, if the rate at which such a payment may be made as determined by the preceding provisions of this section is not an exact multiple of a penny, the odd fraction of a penny shall be disregarded.
3 Provisions as to mixed crops.
(1) Subject to the provisions of this section, for the purposes of any provision of this Act which relates to land being under oats at a particular time—
(a ) land on which there was growing at that time a crop of oats intermixed with barley and not intermixed with any other crop shall be treated as land which was under oats at that time;
(b ) land on which there was growing at that time a crop of oats intermixed with any other crop or crops (not being barley only) shall be treated as aforesaid in such cases as may be determined in accordance with regulations made by the Ministers; and
(c ) land on which there was growing at that time a crop of barley intermixed with any other crop or crops (not being or including oats) shall be treated as aforesaid in such cases as may be determined in accordance with regulations made by the Ministers.
(2) For the purpose of computing the amount of an oats subsidy payment which may be made in the case of any year in respect of a farm comprising land which is treated as having been under oats at the beginning of the fourth day of June in that year by virtue of paragraph (b ) or (c ) of the preceding subsection, the acreage of that land may, in accordance with regulations made by the Ministers, be disregarded or treated as reduced to such extent as may be determined in accordance with the regulations.
(3) For the purpose of computing the acreage qualifying, in the case of any year, for oats subsidy payments, whether at the higher rate or at the lower rate, the acreage of any land which is treated by virtue of subsection (1) of this section as having been under oats at the beginning of the fourth day of June in that year may, in accordance with regulations made by the Ministers, be treated as reduced to such extent as may be determined in accordance with the regulations.
4 Provisions as to negligent cultivation.
4. If it appears to the appropriate Minister that the crop of oats, or the mixed crop, as the case may be, obtained in any year from land which was, or is to be treated for the purposes of this Act as having been, under oats on the fourth day of June in that year is unduly small or has been prejudicially affected either because of the unsuitability of the land for growing the crop, or by negligence in connection with the preparation of the land for the crop or with the sowing, tending or harvesting of the crop, or that any of the land has been used in that year in a manner calculated to impair the fertility thereof, he may reduce to such extent as he may think fit the amount of, or may withhold, any oats subsidy payment which, apart from this provision, he would have made in the case of that year in respect of the farm comprising that land.
5 Procedure on applications for payments and elections to exclude wheat payments.
(1) Subject to the provisions of this section, the appropriate Minister shall not be authorised to make any oats subsidy payment in the case of any year in respect of any farm unless an application for the payment has been made to the appropriate Minister, in such manner and within such period as the Ministers may by regulations prescribe, by the person who was the occupier of the farm at the beginning of the fourth day of June in that year.
(2) In relation to any farm the appropriate Minister may, in any case which appears to him to be exceptional, and if he considers it desirable in the circumstances of the case so to do, extend any period within which, under the Ministers' regulations, an application in respect of the farm, or an election to exclude the farm from the benefit of wheat deficiency payments, must be made.
6 Provisions as to changes in occupation of farms.
6. Where in any year there has occurred or occurs, at any time before the fourth day of June, a change in the occupation of a farm which, at the time of the change, comprised or comprises land under oats or land under wheat, and the outgoing occupier is, by virtue of any custom or agreement, entitled to harvest any of the oats or wheat, or to receive payment therefor, the appropriate Minister, upon application made to him by or on behalf of the outgoing occupier, may give directions for all or any of the following purposes, that is to say,—
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