CHAPTER II 



ENGLAND'S FOOD-SUPPLY IN PEACE AND WAR 



Laisser-aller policy Two months' famine margin Wheat- 

 growing in England and abroad Wheat imports Decay 

 of wheat-growing in England Increased acreage yield 

 abroad Stagnation in stock-raising Inevitable wheat 

 shortage Redistribution of crops suggested Difficulties of 

 the scheme The competition for nitrates. 



BITTER experience gained in the present war is 

 forcing home the lesson that too heavy a price may 

 be paid for the pursuing of an easy-going policy of 

 go-as-you-please. Were the price demanded only 

 that of British treasure, the non-organization of the 

 country would be stupid and suicidal. But the cost 

 of it to-day, as we have had to read the reckoning, 

 is the lives of our fellow-men sacrificed to our past 

 blindness and the unspeakably grave peril, not yet 

 for a certainty surmounted, that Britain may be 

 humbled to the dust through famine. 



The voices of those preaching agricultural reform 

 are the voices of men crying in the wilderness, calling 

 attention to a risk as grave as that which Lord 

 Roberts was never tired of voicing ; but the country 

 closes its ears to those who tell it of the risk just 

 as they callously ignored the need of anything 

 approaching national service. 



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