The Future of our Agriculture 



CHAPTER I 



Shortcomings of our Agriculture 



The demand for " Agricultural Reform " is at present 

 on nearly every one's lips. And at all points of the country 

 are minds concentrating their attention upon the question : 

 ' ' In what way may the position of our Agriculture be effec- 

 tively improved ? " The war has found out our " heel of 

 Achilles," at which even the well-equipped warrior is vul- 

 nerable. It has meant a rude awakening for us. For, 

 just as the Germans did with their" HindenburgLine," we 

 in our self-complacency cherished the fond belief, nurtured 

 by long-continued peace at sea, that our position with regard 

 to the supply of food was impregnable. A disappointing 

 morning came to our dream. Germany had challenged 

 us at arms. And we responded, so to put it, by challeng- 

 ing her " at food." But — lo and behold ! Germany re- 

 taliated in kind and caused us at any rate some severely 

 troubled three or four years. In our sense of security we 

 had reckoned without the submarines. 



It is only characteristic of human nature that, so dis- 

 illusioned, we should have at once jumped overreadily to 

 the opposite extreme, forgetting in our anxiety — after a 

 hopeful rejoicing over " a century of peace " with our 

 most powerful sister nation, heralding, as we are still bound 

 to hope, a coming reign of world peace — that the world 

 war was, after all, only a passing episode, one of — 



1 B 



