CHAPTER XXI. 

 FOOD PROBLEM INDIVIDUALISED 



THE beginning of the war found me on my little 

 farm in Mayo, and our prices ran suddenly high, 

 often far above those in England, especially for 

 imports. In our part of Ireland flour is displacing 

 potatoes as the staple. The normal profit on the 

 bag of seven stones is gd., but the shop keepers 

 sold it for 1 8s. to 2os. at a time when they could 

 buy it for us., and the multiplication of profits 

 at the rate of 1,000 per cent, was not confined to 

 flour. The " law " of demand and supply had 

 to be suspended, and our local sergeant of police 

 took the place of Adam Smith, but with power to 

 punish extortion. I had consulted no authority 

 beyond the stomach, the palate, and the purse, 

 but the war has made me a food reformer. It is 

 quite certain that an enormous amount of our 

 expenditure on food is to injure us. 



My mutton had been supplied on a standing 

 bargain at 8d. Now it rose to is. 3d., at which 

 consumers could not be found. The butcher had 

 to shut up shop and take to tilling the soil. Our 

 alternative was to pay even more than is. 3d. for 

 any rubbish a distant stranger might choose to 

 put on the railway, and beef was unprocurable, 

 the cow being too big a quantity for the economy 



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