IMPROVEMENTS IN USE OF FERTILIZERS 235 



the farmer knows a great deal better than he performs, and 

 the reason for his lack of performance is insufficient capital, 

 indifferent health, or perhaps an unsuitable wife. 



In considering the best use to which one can put fertilizers, 

 one must remember that the great present need is food 

 production, which is not the same thing as agriculture. In 

 pre-war days that type of farming was considered best 

 which produced a sufficient return on the capital invested 

 with the least possible risk and trouble to the farmer and to 

 the landlord. The British people looked to the world for 

 its food, and to the Navy for its security. The land itself 

 was merely a home farm, a convenient source of milk, vege- 

 tables and prime meat sufficient only for the needs of a small 

 fraction of the population, but otherwise of little account as 

 a contributor to the general stability of the country. Sir 

 Thomas Middleton estimates that, in pre-war times, the food 

 grown in the United Kingdom would have just kept the popu- 

 lation from Friday evening to Monday morning in every week, 

 and he alludes to the condition of farming in the country as 

 being a " week-end " sort of farming. If we compare this 

 with the policy that prevailed in Germany, we see that the 

 German object was to keep under the protection of her guns 

 the ground on which her corn grew and her cattle grazed, 

 so that Germany grew nine-tenths of the food used, as 

 against our one-fifth. The reason why Germany produced so 

 much more food than Great Britain, was not that the yield 

 per acre of her crops was greater, but that Britain was 

 mostly under grass, whilst Germany had much land under 

 the plough. We have, in this country, grass of varying 

 quality, from a hill pasture, producing 2 or 3 Ibs. of mutton 

 per acre, to rich grazing pasture, on which a bullock may 

 put on 3 or 4 cwt. live weight per acre in the season. Poor 

 lowland pastures will yield about 20 Ibs. of lean meat per 

 annum, whilst medium pasture will give about 100 Ibs. of 

 meat per annum. The poor land at Cockle Park has, by 

 judicious but economic management, been converted to this 

 medium pasture condition, and produces now rather over that 

 amount, but some of the really first-rate fattening pasture 



