INTRODUCTION 7 



is still plenty of land left on the earth's surface from which to 

 rob, and while this is so, our own good breeds of beef cattle, 

 exported in considerable numbers for the purpose, may be 

 relied on to convert the produce of the untilled plains into 

 prime meat. At a price, the carcases of the descendants of our 

 much-boasted pedigree stock will be returned to us in admirable 

 condition in the freezers of ocean-going ships. Though the 

 amount of soil awaiting the land-robber is limited, there is 

 enough of it left to last even until Europe has recovered from 

 this war. The dread of the next resort to arms will not be enough 

 to prevent our people from sending money across the ocean in 

 return for the produce of such lands for so long as the supply 

 lasts. A nation accustomed to prime meat is more than likely 

 to go on eating it while it can, even though it can be shown that 

 its place of origin is insecure. That the people will have their 

 meat in peace-time, whatever the cost, unless and until their 

 patriotism is awakened by their country's danger, seems to be 

 the only assumption upon which an agriculturalist who is making 

 plans for the future may work. This assumption demands that 

 any reform of farming practice must combine intensive farming 

 with the most economical production of prime beef. 



The necessity of reform is obvious, if safety is to be con- 

 sidered worth attaining. The United Kingdom has, it will be 

 admitted, not made herself safe from the tyranny of evil-minded 

 and rival foreign countries in the past ; she has left the satisfying 

 of her people's hunger to others, she has had no care for the 

 produce of the land which has been entrusted to her. She was, 

 in August 1914, as vulnerable to starvation as any uncivilized 

 country ; she has to thank the indomitable spirit of her people 

 that her lack of foresight did not lead to her destruction for 

 want of the necessities of life. She ran the risk so that she might 

 boast of her food being cheap, so cheap that her people learnt 

 to waste that which they have at last learnt, after forty years of 

 profligacy, to value at something approaching its worth. That 

 she does not wish to return to the unhappy conditions prevailing 

 from 1875 to 1914 may be assumed; yet she has the right to 

 demand that her foodstuffs should be as far as possible produced 

 from her own soil, that the foundation of all life should be 



