INCREASED CROP PRODUCTION 101 



Thus the problem of increasing crop production 

 involves at least three types of factors: administra- 

 tive rearrangements of the cropping to make more 

 economical use of the ground ; educational efforts to 

 raise the standard of the average farmer, and to do 

 something to bridge the gap between the average 

 and the best; and, finally, scientific investigations 

 to discover the factors governing the growth of the 

 crops, and so, perhaps, knowing them, to control 

 them. 



I propose to deal only with this latter problem, but 

 I must say, at the outset, that we do not know a great 

 deal about the factors concerned. 



It is a fundamental principle in crop production that 

 the environment must suit the crop. A study of the 

 climatic map of Great Britain shows sharp differences 

 in temperature and rainfall, the eastern counties being, 

 on the whole, dry and cool, and the western counties 

 moist and warm. On the whole, the eastern regions 

 are thus naturally favourable for grain production, 

 and the western for grass production. The agricul- 

 tural experts of olden times hoped to control the 

 weather, or, at least, to control the clouds and the 

 hail. Mediseval writers on agriculture, following 

 Palladius and other late Latin writers, give details 

 of methods for doing this, 1 but we who are sadder 

 and wiser leave rainfall and temperature to look after 



1 See Palladius, Opus Agricultures, Lib. I, XXXV. "Contra nebulas", 

 "contra grandinem ", &c., and later, in the same section, "Grandini 

 creditur obviare", &c. The suggestions are to burn chaff and rubbish, to 

 throw a russet garment on the millstone, to threaten the heavens with bloody 

 axes, to have white vines round the garden, to fix up an owl with outstretched 

 wings, to smear the tools with bear's grease ; but the remedy must be applied 

 in secret, and no one must see it done. Or, again, to carry the skin of a 

 crocodile, a hyena, a seal, round the estate and hang it up at the gate, to 

 carry a marsh tortoise about in the right hand, taking care to keep it back 

 downwards, then, retracing your steps and still keeping it on its back, &c. , with 

 other details more picturesque than helpful. 



