146 Hoiv to Pdv for the War 



those four or five millions of men that have been killed or 

 injured in the War, and whose numbers are mounting up 

 at such a terrible rate, hour by hour, day by day ? It is 

 more than mere selfishness therefore that causes you and 

 I to-day to ask how can we assure the output of the largest 

 amount of food possible to sell to those who have none, 

 and who, unless they can secure their supplies at rates 

 lower than those ruling, even before the War (when the 

 world as a whole was prosperous and had savings in the 

 bank), will feel the pinch of poverty due to the high prices 

 very keenly, if, indeed, they do not go under altogether, 

 the women especially. 



At present, money is being doled out as army pay with 

 a comparatively free hand, but directly the men are dis- 

 banded this will cease and the women and their men folk 

 (maimed or well) will in thousands of cases stand up and 

 say, what can we do to get food as the cities are over- 

 crowded with people like ourselves, i.e., non-producers of 

 food, of whom there is a glut on the labour market, so we 

 must turn to the land first to feed ourseKes, and in the 

 aggregate, to sell the balance of our crops to send to others 

 in e>:change for clothes, &c. 



Roughly speaking, I hope therefore that the experienced 

 dry-farmer will push more out into the open and plant 

 up new areas, as they have the knowledge of how to do 

 so which these future recruits to the agricultural world 

 will altogether lack. Fertile lands elsewhere will be 

 broken up and laid down in wheat, and everywhere we 

 are urged to increase the number of cattle, pigs, poultry, 

 rabbits, &c., to bring grist to the mill. The big man must 

 become bigger, and tresh recruits must come in at the other 

 end, to add their " mites " to the general store. 



I am afraid the foregoing savours more of politics than 

 dry-farming ; if so, 1 apologize, but I have included them 

 to show that never has there been the need that exists to- 

 day, to go ahead with dry-farming methods so as to produce 

 more on some areas than has hitherto been done and, 

 more important still, to urge you all to open up fresh 

 sections and bring them under cultivation as well. If, 

 before the War, the increase in the population of the 

 world tended to outrun the increase of its food supply by 

 two or three to one, it certainly will do so when the War 

 comes to an end, and, in fact, it is doing so to-day — doing 

 so very rapidly too. I therefore as a man of the town — 

 a non-producer of food of any kind — may be excused if for 

 once I stop discussing how to plant, and only talk of where 



