1916] EDITORIAL. 603 



of its food resources long before the second year of the war ; " and he 

 explained further that the war was being fought by that country 

 quite as much on an agricultural as on a military organization of the 

 nation. 



In an appeal to farmers for an increase in the food production of 

 England Lord Selbome said: "You have something more on your 

 shoulders than your own business to-day. You are no longer indi- 

 vidual farmers maldng your own fortunes or losing them. You are 

 trustees on your own land to do your best for England, You have 

 your duty quite as clear and as definite as the captain of a cruiser 

 or the colonel of a battalion, England has a claim on you farmers, 

 men and women of everj'^ class, as clear as she has on our sons and 

 husbands to go and serve in the trenches." 



The force of the situation in Great Britain is illustrated by the fact 

 that of the total area of cultivated land, two-thirds is in permanent 

 grass and only one-third in cultivated crops, whereas in Germany the 

 proportion is exactly reversed; and, furthermore, by the fact that 

 even in 1915, when the Avheat crop was the largest for many years, 

 three-fourths of the wheat supply of Great Britain had to be im- 

 ported. In 1915 the United Kingdom imported agricultural prod- 

 ucts valued at £276,803,000, whereas in the year before the war France 

 spent only £60,000,000 for imported food products. 



Similarly, in Germany the nieed for the greatest possible produc- 

 tion of food has been impressed upon the people. The thorough cul- 

 tivation has been urged of every available piece of land on farms and 

 in towns, and societies have been formed to take the work in hand. 

 Efforts have been made, for example, by the Moor Culture Union 

 to increase vegetable growing on moor land, the society annoimcin<y 

 allowances to disabled soldiers settling on such lands. 



The measures adopted by the various nations are of much interest. 

 The French Government early applied organization to the resump- 

 tion of farming in affected areas and its continuance on an efficient 

 basis elsewhere. To save the crops the small holdings were " pooled," 

 the inhabitants of the villages who remained being gi-ouped together 

 for that purpose and the assistance of the military given when cir- 

 cumstances allowed. The government also took measures to prevent 

 the wholesale slaughter of li\'e stock, first suppressing the customs duty 

 on practically all food stuffs including frozen meat, and then exclud- 

 ing from requisition for army purposes cows in milk or in calf, brood 

 mares, premium sires, pedigreed stock, heifers, and plow oxen. Simi- 

 lar measures were taken in Great Britain and German}^ In the dis- 

 tricts of France that had been invaded, the peasants were in need of 

 horses, implements, seeds, fertilizers, forage, etc. To provide these 

 the government made advances to the peasants, and to prevent the 

 credit banks from breaking down from demands upon them it loaned 



