1917] AGRICULTURE IN WAR-TIME. ans 
siderably higher than can be paid by the farmer. We are an ambitious 
people, and unfortunately that ambition has largely turned towards 
dollars and cents; it is not well balanced. The get-rich-quick idea 
affects our youth as it does that in other countries. 
These are digressions, but I have purposely introduced them that 
you may have a clearer view of what the conditions in agriculture have 
been and are to-day. My hope is that we are about to enter upon a 
new era in our agricultural life. The war has shown us many things and 
with respect to agriculture it is giving us saner, sounder views. It is 
impressing upon us as a people the dignity and high status of agriculture 
as an occupation—its vital importance to the stability of the country. 
We are coming to realize that it is ‘‘the source and foundation of our 
national strength’’. It may not be a calling that offers great monetary 
returns, compared with some other occupations, but it is one that will 
call forth all the intelligence and mental ability that a man has, no matter 
how clever he may be, and give him a healthy, wholesome life with a fair 
recompense, provided he applies himself intelligently to its problems. 
There are problems in soils and crops and livestock that require know- 
ledge and thought as well as labour to solve. I know of no occupation 
that provides better opportunities, more scope, for study, clear thinking 
and successful action. Let it not be thought that the farming of the 
future will consist merely of hard, physical work (though there will 
always be plenty of that) indeed the most successful farmer to to-day 
is the one working on advanced and rational lines, and who is using his 
head more than his hands, proving, adopting and adapting to his own 
conditions the findings of science and experience. It is all this that the 
war is bringing home directly or indirectly to the people at large. Further, 
the war is making very clear the value of scientific research in Agri- 
culture. Our governments are recognizing, as they have never done 
before, the importance, the vital importance of scientific work if real 
progress is to be made towards improving farming in all its phases and 
branches. The British government has been most active during the 
past two years in enlisting the assistance of the best scientific ability 
in the land. This is most hopeful; our Government will follow and we 
may confidently expect that in the next decade great strides will be 
made in the science of agriculture which must react beneficially on 
practical farming. 
Very early in the history of the war it was foreseen that there would 
be an extraordinary tax on the supplies of food stuffs at the command 
of the Empire, and that every effort must be made not only in the home 
land, but in all the colonies to meet it. There is no necessity I am sure 
to enlarge on the reasons, the conditions, that led to the urgent and 
