utilize Semi-arid Zones 145 



us want to keep up our stamina to be able to throw off 

 the trials and troubles of this wicked world — younj^ people 

 most of all. It is the young people I am chietiy thinking 

 of whilst writing these notes, for they have to carry on the 

 work of the world, and repopulate it when peace comes, 

 and so, if we want a healthy people in the future it behoves 

 us to look round and keep some food in the larder for those 

 of to-day with such a task before them. 



Therefore as one of the direct victims of the high prices 

 caused by the War, placed as 1 am in this city ot London 

 where all are consumers and none of us can produce, 

 although you in America, Canada and elsewhere have not 

 escaped altogether, judging by the cartoons 1 have seen 

 of " the innocent onlooker'' being hit by the cannon-ball of 

 the increased cost of living, I would like to take this oppor- 

 tunity of discussing with you (unfortunately not in person) 

 how you can help to lill our larders for us in exchange for 

 goods from this side, at a fair profit to yourselves, without 

 having to pinch us too severely as to the cost during the 

 next two or three years. 



This discussion is well placed in such an assembly as 

 there is no doubt that many semi-arid districts can greatly 

 increase their output with the help of a little capital from 

 agricultural, co-operative or other banks, a little encourage- 

 ment and guidance from the authorities, and much care 

 and experience on the part of the farniers. 



The head of the office ot the U. S. Department of 

 Agriculture, Mr. C. V. Piper, when discussing a possible 

 increase last year in the output of forage crops for four- 

 legged animals put a question ' which can be applied with 

 even greater force to-day to the output of foodstuffs for 

 us two-legged beings when he asked " How much of the 

 dry lands of the West can be brought into permanent 

 and profitable cultivation ? " Mr. Piper, of course, referred 

 only to the Western States of North America, but I am 

 asking myself the same question of the dry areas in Brazil 

 and elsewhere in South America, in Ceylon, Canada, 

 Russia, Australia — in Spain, in China, in fact I suppose 

 in all countries nearly, and since it is so, all the better for 

 us in the cities as goodness knows we shall need the food 

 badly enough. Even I, a man, cannot look into the future 

 without some anxiety as to ways and means, and this 

 being so, how will it go, I ask you, with the dependents of 



' Page 1 38 of the Proceedings of the Wichita Congress. 

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