1917] AGRICULTURE IN WAR-TIME. 215 
These two seasons, 1915 and 1916, emphasize the fact that weather, 
seasonal conditions, constitute a limiting factor in crop production, a 
factor that will always make agriculture as an industry more or less of 
ahazard. No matter how well the soil is tilled and cared for, no accurate 
prediction can be made of what the yield will be; the harvest alone will 
show the results of the year’s labour. It is this consideration that supplies 
one of the chief reasons for advocating mixed farming, for this obviously 
must materially reduce the hazard. 
But in this matter of results it is well to remember that agriculture 
compared with other industries is not one that can be readily or quickly 
“speeded up’. In a very real sense it is the methods of the past that 
largely determine the success of the future, at all events, the immediate 
future. There are few soils that can be built up to their maximum 
productiveness in a season. Even with the adoption of the best methods 
the work of improvement is comparatively slow; soil deterioration, due 
to poor and irrational methods, unfortunately is much more rapid. 
We know there are thousands of acres in the Dominion that have not 
been brought up to their maximum productiveness, not even giving 
average yields, for the tendency in the past has been towards extensive 
rather than intensive farming—too many acres to thoroughly till with 
the labour and capital at the farmer’s command. But we shall mend 
this as the years go by. 
With live stock, meat products, dairy produce, the difficulties for 
immediate increased production are still greater. Many of the reasons 
for this will be obvious and I need only refer to one, that live stock needs 
labour—and the labour problem is without doubt the most serious and 
the most difficult to solve of all agricultural problems to-day. Its 
solution may be temporarily sought in some degree, by rearrangement 
of the labour of the country as a whole, by importing labour from the 
United States, and by the help that to some extent that may be drawn 
from our towns and cities. 
The main purpose of this address is to give you some account of our 
propaganda, the teachings which, if followed out, might lead to increased 
production. I must not, of course, attempt to enter into detail which 
would only be of interest to an agricultural audience. I shall therefore 
confine myself to an epitome, emphasizing the more important features 
of the campaign. 
In the first place I may point out that the principles of rational, 
successful farming remain the same, whether we are at war or dwelling 
in peace. Consequently we had nothing new of a fundamental character 
to propound, no panacea to advocate that would cure the ills of soils and 
crops and ensure large yields; no short cuts that would eliminate work 
