55 April, 1917.] Farmers, Win the War' 229 



millions, including no less than 500,000 women, are engaged in war work, 

 and each day sees another industry give way and come into line with the 

 requirements of war. 



ThTis, every activity not a vital one has heen subordinated to the 

 needs of the Kmpirc, and to-day the British Isles literally throb from 

 end to end with the work of munition making. In great arsenals, 

 spreading over hundreds of acres, subject to the ever present danger 

 i)f Zeppelin raids and of premature explosions, these workers toil night 

 and day to assist their fellows in the trenches. The work of these 

 factories never ceases, and every conceivable labour-saving device is 

 used; yet the cry for more guns, more shells, more men, goes up. 



The Need for Increased Production. 



Consequent upon the drain on the workers at the normal occupations 

 of peace times, the agricultural production of the countries engaged in 

 the conflict has fallen away very considerably ; but all this was foreseen, 

 and has been provided for in the great national .scheme of things. In 

 a word, it has only been possible to carry on the war by arranging for 

 the concentration on the manufacture of munitions by the countries 

 nearest the scene of the fray, and by those countries most highly 

 organized industrially. 



It is War Work to put in an Increased Acreage : It is War 

 Work to Increase Your Yield per Acre. 



The provision of the foodstuffs has, therefore, necessarily been left 

 to those further afield, and there is not the slightest doubt that the huge 

 demand for wheat and flour from the overseas Dominions will continue, 

 not only for the period of the war, but for some years to come. It is 

 only necessary to consider for a moment the conditions in Europe to 

 realize what effect the war has on agricultural production. The type 

 of agriculture in Europe is intensive; that is to say, a great deal of 

 preparation and manuring is necessary to secure the high yields obtained. 

 Seeing that there is so little labour available — labour which is often 

 unskilled — and, further, that there is a deficiency of potash in the Allied 

 countries and of nitrates in Germany, it follows that the normal high 

 yields of tho.sc countries cannot be maintained during the war. After 

 the war there must be such a demand for constructional work, such as 

 repairing damage to houses, bridges, railways, &c., that agricultural 

 workers will be scarce, and the greatest difliculty will be experienced in 

 getting anything like normal acreages under crop. Then, again, the 

 wastage of wiieat and flour in war time is enomious. In the devastated 

 countries, whole stacks were burnt by retreating armies, and large areas 

 under cereals laid waste. 



With the Central Empires, on the one hand, living from hand to 

 mouth, and the Allied countries, on the othei-, unable to find labour for 

 agriculture, the demand to replenish supplies from overseas after the 

 war will be enormous. .4.71)/ farmer citizen of Australia xvho is unable 

 to go to the front has, therefore, a clear call to do war vork along irith 

 the munition malccrs of the Continent, and his particular task is to feed 

 these toilers, and feed them well. He, no less than the maker of guns 

 and shells, and the fighter in the trenches, is called %ipon to do his hit, 

 (Hid in do it just as efficiently. 



