102 THE FUTURE 



Union of Germany conducting experiments in the 

 breeding of a potato which will produce at the 

 smallest cost the largest amount of available starch 

 per acre, and the sugar refiners subsidising scores 

 of farmers* and Institutes in making experiments 

 in raising the sugar percentage of the beet. 



And while one set of scientists is working at 

 raising the output, and the farmer is equipping 

 himself to make the best possible use of their dis- 

 coveries, another set of scientists is working to 

 discover new outlets and new markets. As food 

 is a form of wealth, says scientific husbandry, for 

 which there is an unsatisfied and ever-growing 

 demand, the world cannot have too much of it ; 

 and so-called gluts simply prove that in certain 

 quarters we have not yet learned to take care of 

 this wealth by instituting a sound system of distri- 

 bution or disposal, or by calling in the scientist 

 to suspend the law of decay. 



It is not very many years ago that Denmark was 

 threatened by a deluge of separated milk — a by- 

 product in her dairy industry which was working 

 overtime for the English market. Then scientific 

 husbandry ordained : Turn it into bacon and sell it to 

 England along with the butter. And so it was done. 



In Germany there used to be much searching 

 of hearts because a certain percentage of potatoes 

 would rot. Then some society offered a handsome 

 prize for the best type of potato-drying machine, 

 and the result has been the saving of millions of 

 pounds' worth of food which otherwise would have 

 been destroyed by our enemies among the fungi. 



Now let us compare with this the state of affairs 

 in England. When the depression came, not one 

 economist raised his voice to tell the country and 



