88 GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND - AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL 



This improvement in the matter of Hve stock had not only a local 

 importance, for live stock was going to present one of the great problems 

 of the future. It was not yet sufficiently realized in the country how 

 much more, as time went on, Britain would have to'depend on her own re- 

 sources. A very short time ago the United States of America had been an 

 enormous exporting countr3\ Per head of the population it was the big- 

 gest meat-eating country in the world. Great Britain was the third great- 

 est meat-eating country in the world and the largest in J^urope ; her require- 

 ments, already gigantic, showed every sign of increasing ; and while that 

 process was going on great exporting countries like the United States of 

 America were finding it more and more necessary to reserv'e their meat for 

 their home populations. Therefore although new markets would naturally 

 tend to develop elsewhere — in America or Africa, for instance — fresh de- 

 mands would be made upon the stock owners and stock breeders at home. 

 There had too been the ravages of war — the flocks and herds in certain 

 parts of Europe had been devastated (Germans- herself had, since the war had 

 begun, lost a nfilUon head of stock). The obligation upon the nation to 

 use every means at their disposal to supplement and to maintain their flocks 

 and herds was plain. 



On 5 June 1916 the annual records had been compiled by the Board 

 of Agriculture. There were then in England and Wales a larger number of 

 head of cattle than at any recorded date. So strong an economic position 

 after two 3^ears of war was astonishing. In the succeeding four months the 

 figure had probably been lowered ; yet during war time, and in view of the 

 • extraordinary figures discovered on 5 June, the country was entitled to 

 some extent to draw upon its capital. It was greatly to be hoped however 

 that, although war pressure would drive in that direction, agriculturists 

 would not yield to the ready temptation of high prices and diminish or 

 disperse their herds. A good herd was now a good asset but it would 

 twelve months after the declaration of peace be a still greater and more pre- 

 cious asset. Ever}^ head of cattle which could be maintained over the war 

 was strengthening the countrj^ as a reserve during the war, and would great- 

 ly add to the strength of the country and its power of recuperation after 

 the war. 



Wheat, live stock and crops depended however, alike, on adequate la- 

 bour. The speaker stated that there was plenty of evidence of the inad- 

 equacy of labour to maintain the normal standard of cultivation. 



Labour Shortage. — The official returns of 5 June 1916, already men- 

 tioned, showed an increase of 112,000 acres in the land lying in bare fallow 

 this year, as compared with the previous year. The speaker was in no doubt 

 that this increase was due to labour shortage ; and bad labour shortage meant 

 bad ciiltivation, bad cultivation meant poor 3'ields and meant dirty land, 

 which meant that two or three or even four years would have to pass before 

 the qualities of the soil could be fully restored. 



The army said that it wanted more men, the nation that it wanted 

 more food, the farmer that he wanted more labour : yet we were not asked 

 to reconcile the irrenconciliable. 



