1920] British Crop Production 51 



WEEKLY EVENING MEETING, 



Friday, February 20, 1920. 



Sir James Crichton-Browne, M.D. LL.D. F.R.S., Treasurer 



and Vice-President, in the Chair. 



Edward J. Russell, D.Sc. F.R.S. 



British Crop Production. 



Crop production in Britain is carried on in the hope of gain, and 

 thus differs fundamentally from gardening, which is commonly 

 practised without regard to profit and loss accounts. Many poets 

 from times of old down to our own days have sung of the pleasures 

 to be derived from gardening. But only once in the history of 

 literature have the pleasures of farming been sung, and that was 

 nearly 2000 years ago. 



" Ah 1 too fortunate the husbandmen, did they but know it, on 

 whom, far from the clash of arms, earth their most just mistress 

 lavishes from the soil a plenteous subsistence." 



Georgics, Bk. II., 1., 458 et seq. 



" Did they but know it ! " Even then there seem to have been 

 worries ! 



This seeking for profit imposes an important condition on British 

 agriculture : maximum production must be secured at the minimum 

 of cost. This condition is best fulfilled by utilising to the full all 

 the natural advantages and obviating as far as possible all the natural 

 disadvantages of the farm : in other words, by growing crops specially 

 adapted to the local conditions, and avoiding any not particularly 

 well suited to them. 



From the scientific point of view the problem thus becomes a 

 study in adaptation, and we shall find a considerable interplay of 

 factors, inasmuch as both natural conditions and crop can be some- 

 what altered so as the better to suit each other. 



It is not my province to discuss the methods by which plane 

 breeders alter plants ; it is sufficient to know that this can be done 

 within limits which no one would yet attempt to define. The 

 natural conditions are determined broadly by climate and by soil. 

 The climate may be regarded as uncontrollable — 



" What can't be cured must be endured." 



The scheme of crop production must therefore be adapted to the 

 climate, and especially to the rainfall. 



