6 INTRODUCTION 



Even then one has to assume that the Englishwoman could be 

 persuaded, and trained, to take the infinite pains with the de- 

 tails of her household work that such cooking demands. One 

 is inclined to doubt whether she has the instinct and capacity 

 for such work. 



In the absence of first-class cookery or prime meat, it is as 

 easy, as it is unpleasant, to foresee a general fall in our national 

 standard of life at any rate as regards the food which serves 

 to prolong our lives. Nobody with any knowledge of the well- 

 paid labour class, will for a minute believe, if he has imagination 

 enough to realize what such a change in the national food would 

 mean, that our countrymen would tolerate such a condition of 

 affairs under any circumstances but those of dire necessity. 

 There is no doubt that, should the necessity unhappily arise, 

 such a change would have a very pernicious effect on the effi- 

 ciency of our race. The well-fed man is a contented man and 

 vice versa, and the more contented a man is, the more likely is 

 he to be the head of a useful family and the State is but the 

 reflection of the family. Yet this change, with all its conse- 

 quences for evil, is the one that is urged upon our life by those 

 who would import continental methods of agriculture to replace 

 our own in toto. 



These authorities are at one with all who are patriotic enough 

 to deplore a return to the state of affairs prevailing in August 

 1914. The British public of those days dimly, if at all, realized 

 that agriculture was connected with the people's food. The 

 U-boats, it is true, have taught us how dangerous it is to be 

 dependent upon transport for food. The folly of relying upon 

 lands on the other side of an ocean, while a large part of our 

 own land was unproductive, has been demonstrated only too 

 well. The rationing forced upon us by U-boats has done more, 

 in a few months, to make people think of the fruits of their 

 own land than writing, platform oratory, or argument had done 

 in decades. Nevertheless, it is the height of folly to expect that 

 the public will altogether forgo the best type of food as a 

 result of such lessons. The ordinary man will get the best, 

 particularly when he has been brought up to expect it, from 

 overseas, if it cannot be produced for him at home. There 



