1918 | Stalham Farmers' Club | Leading speakers from the agricultural industry.

Stalham Farmers 1918

JANUARY 22, 1918

Minutes of meeting held at the Maid’s Head Hotel, Stalham.

Mr E G Cubitt (president) was in the chair, supported by 50 other members. The Hon secretary, the Rev M C H Bird, read the minutes of the former meeting and these having been duly confirmed, gave a statement of accounts of the club showing a balance of £1 13s 6, which was accepted as satisfactory.

Mr H Plummer, of East Ruston, was unanimously elected a member of the club. The  following names were brought forward for future election - Messrs Roy Wright, Mr H Harrison, Mr D Wallis, Mr F Gedge, Mr E C Littlewood.

On the proposition of Rev M Bird, it was unanimously resolved that the officers of the club, namely Mr E G Cubitt, president, Col B Petre and Mr W P Cubitt, vice presidents, Messrs F C Neave and CJ Littlewood, club representatives at the Norfolk Chamber of Agriculture, and Rev M C H Bird, Hon secretary, be re-appointed with thanks for their past services.

It was decided to appoint Wednesday as the day for the weekly pigeon shooting. The Hon Secretary was instructed to write a letter to the ED Press requesting owners of all woods and plantations in the district to arrange for their coverts to be duly tenanted by guns for this purpose.

A hearty vote of thanks was accorded to Mrs Lawrence for entertaining and so satisfactorily catering for the club (on their being unable to assemble at the Railway Hotel in consequence of its occupation by the military) especially as her husband was away on foreign service. And Tuesday being sale day, it must have given her an extra amount of trouble.

The Hon secretary read the report of the judges on the root competition. The cups were awarded as follows –

President’s Cup for the best two acres of Swedes – D P Cubitt 47.5 tons.

Mr H Wenn’s Cup for the best two acres of mangold - F Worts, 42.75 tons.

Mr F Worts’ Cup for the whole root crop -  F Worts, 37.66 tons.

The president thanked Mr W J Bygrave on behalf of the club for kindly assisting the judges on the second day in the unavoidable absence of Mr W Wright and also for allowing his man to motor the judges round on their previous day’s inspection.

The Hon secretary read a short report on the value of liquid manure. Some remarks upon meat supplies and the price of feeding stuffs brought a very successful meting to a close, it being left to the president and the Hon Secretary to frame and forward to the Minister of Food and the President of the Board of Agriculture, a resolution on the subject of the orders re sale of fat cattle.

The following resolution was subsequently sent as directed – “Though recognising the loss which it entailed upon us as producers, we loyally accepted the sale of fat cattle by live weight, but we view with dismay the contemplated sale by dead weight, not only in consequence of the far heavier loss which we are persuaded that it will mean to ourselves but also because we are unanimously of opinion that it must act prejudicially upon further production of meat, and so defeat its own object by curtailing supplies.”

Signed E G Cubitt, January 14, 1919