NA TURE 



;93 



THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1921. 



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Britain's Food Supply Basis. 



THE papers read at the successful Inter- 

 national Potato Conference held in London 

 last week indicated the many points of interest 

 which the f)otato presents for plant pathologists, 

 breeders, and cultivators ; but there was no topic 

 discussed by the experts, who dealt with the tech- 

 nical problems presented by the crop, which has 

 so much interest for the general public as the place 

 which the potato should take in our national food 

 economy. To this subject close attention has 

 recently been directed in connection with the uses 

 of the potato in time of war. 



In a paper read before the Agricultural 

 Section of the British Association at the Edin- 

 burgh meeting last September and now 'published 

 in pamphlet form,i Lord Bledisloe remarked : — 



" During the late war it was assumed by prac- 

 tically the whole British population . 

 that bread made of wheat flour was the unalter- 

 able staff of life. ... I desire to propound the 

 view that, in a like emergency, potatoes, sup- 

 plemented by pig-meat and a larger output of 

 milk, would probably afford a less precarious basis 

 for Britain's food supply than wheat, and a better 

 insurance against national star\-ation." 



Lord Bledisloe marshals his points with 

 much ability and industr^', and he sets them 

 out in a series which, if the public's right 

 to self-determination in the matter of diet had 

 been admitted, would have numbered exactly 

 fourteen I In an emergency, however, there can 



1 " Potatoes and Pie": with Milk as the Ba.-^is of Britain's Food .'Supply." 

 By Lord Bledisloe. (With some Hints as to the Production of Each.) 

 ■pp. 59. (London : Hugh Rees, Ltd., 1921.) \s. net. 



NO. 2717. VOL. 108] 



be no self-determination, and so we have the 

 whole case for potatoes and pigs; but there is 

 little regard for the counter-claims of wheat, and 

 none at all for the merits of oatmeal, an omission 

 one would not have expected in an address de- 

 livered so close to the Heart of Midlothian I 



Let us first take the case stated for potatoes. 

 The crop is far more productive than wheat, yield- 

 ing twice as much energy per unit of area. It 

 can be grown successfully in ever)- part of the 

 United Kingdom, whereas wheat is suited to the 

 dn.- eastern and southern counties. Potato culti- 

 vation is simple — every farmer and every allot- 

 ment holder has grown this crop; with wheat 

 cultivation many farmers are "wholly unfamiliar." 

 Home-grown potatoes would be safe from the 

 risks of marine transport ; there were heavy losses 

 in sea-borne wheat in 1917. Potatoes, grown 

 everywhere, could be used locally, thus reducing 

 transport; in preparation for long journeys 

 " desiccation of the tubers " might be resorted to. 

 Wheat is exposed to the incendiary bomb of the 

 airman and to the pitiless rain of the British 

 climate; the potato is safe underground, and 

 though blight may appear its effects may be 

 minimised by spraying. (But is the potato a safer 

 crop than wheat? Have we already forgotten 

 1916? Was it the Corn Law only that was 

 "rained away" in the middle of the 'forties? 

 What was William Cobbett thinking about when 

 he "resolved, fire or fire not, that working men 

 should not live upon potatoes in my country " ?) 



With potatoes the pig is naturally associated; 

 it mav be fed on spoiled or sound tubers ; it makes 

 meat more economically than any other domestic 

 animal, its flesh supplies the protein and the fat 

 required to supplement the starchy potato. 



The pig and potato policy was, of course, the 

 outstanding pre-war feature of German agricul- 

 ture, and Lord Bledisloe makes a conservative 

 estimate of its effect on the endurance of that 

 nation when he expresses the opinion that, but 

 for its potato crop, German resistance would have 

 broken down a year before November, 1918. 



It is not quite clear how far Lord Bledisloe 

 would propose to carry the substitution of potatoes 

 for wheat. He would not reduce the British corn 

 area, but, from the estimates which he presents, 

 he appears to think that, by extending potato 

 cultivation, our wheat importation during war 

 might be reduced by at least 50 per cent., and 

 even be abandoned altogether, for he states that 

 1,280,000 acres under potatoes would provide food 

 equivalent to half our wheat imports, and that by 



