FOOD SUPPLY 151 



material imported is roughly about twenty million 

 tons annually. 



Therefore the addition of each million tons to 

 the food home-grown means a reduction of three 

 per cent, in the shipping to be protected during 

 war time. It would be easy, if Great Britain 

 chose, to make this reduction, by growing food 

 at home, at least seven and a half per cent. The 

 Admiralty of the day would find such a reduction 

 of their responsibilit}' in war time a very welcome 

 relief. 



Any addition to home-grown food impHes a 

 corresponding reduction of manufactured goods 

 sent abroad. On the other hand, the work done 

 in raising the extra food will soon come to mean 

 an increased demand for commodities; the returns 

 of the extended home trade would also come more 

 quickly than when this part of the food-supply 

 was by foreign trade. Therefore in time the 

 falling off of manufacture v^^ould be made good. 



A certain number of ships would be laid up 

 for a time, but it does not follow there would be 

 less employment for British sailors. 



To what circumstances then is the revival of 

 British agriculture to be indebted ? Farm labour 

 cannot be taken back to the old conditions; it 

 would not go. Nor can farm labourers well 

 become part owners of large farms : if they be- 

 come owners, it must not be as part owners. 



The proposal is to revive the old custom of 

 apprenticeship, sending as many young men as 

 possible to established farmers. These men to 

 work on the farms, carrying out all farming 



