1919] EDITORIAL. 7 



securing of a largely increased wheat crop was not merely the result 

 of seeding a larger area to that crop. It was not simply a question 

 of land and machinery and labor, vital as these were. The degree of 

 success attained did not follow simply because people had been grow- 

 ing wheat for generations, but because the practice had been steadily 

 improved through experiment and investigation, and the greater skill 

 thus developed was ready for wider application when an emergency 

 came. 



The question of varieties, their adaptation to localities, the value 

 of improved sorts, the relative safety of spring and winter grain, 

 the treatment of seed for smut, the amount to be sown to the acre, 

 the time when it should be planted in different localities to avoid 

 the Hessian fly, the advantage of thorough seed bed preparation, the 

 kind of fertilizers for certain sections — all these things had been 

 worked out to a practical point through years of patient study and 

 experiment After the crop was harvested there was the question of 

 protecting it from loss by proper storage and control of insects, and 

 finally its conservation by the use of substitutes and admixtures. It 

 is impossible to estimate how much this knowledge of ways and means 

 counted for. But if wheat growing had not been placed on this 

 efficient basis by the incorporation of results of inquiry into practice 

 it is not reasonable to suppose the country could have made the 

 contribution it did. No amount of stimulation could have accom- 

 plished it. 



At one time there might have been a tendency, when the supply 

 of a great staple commodity was in danger, to encourage farmers to 

 grow it to the utmost extent without due regard to the effects. But 

 a conspicuous feature of the recent programs and campaigns for 

 production was an intelligent consideration of the welfare of agri- 

 culture as a whole and a safeguarding of its various interests in 

 maintaining a proper balance. These programs recognized that 

 more scientifically planned systems of farming are now in operation 

 which take account of the production of food for man and beast, the 

 maintenance of fertility of the land, the economj' and adjustment of 

 labor, and many other considerations which must not be unduly dis- 

 turbed. They were therefore allowed for in making the plans, allot- 

 ting the areas, and conducting the campaigns. This made the effort 

 something more than a patriotic movement, for it was guided and 

 directed by intelligence. The latter rested, of course, in considerable 

 measure on accumulated experience, but this had been weighed and 

 tested and was correlated with the results of thorough-going funda- 

 mental study. 



Next to bread the greatest need and the most urgent call was for 

 animal products, and for these this country was very largely looked 



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