Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread. 



409 



not make even one efFort to be able to say that 

 in producing our own food we are able to be not 

 superior, but nearly equal to other and poorer 

 countries. 



A NATIONAL QUESTION. 



Agriculture is the nursing mother of the State, 

 and must stand before all other questions in 

 relation to the well-being or otherwise of the 

 people. To neglect it is to build the national 

 edifice upon the sand. To suffer a state of 

 things to continue such as at present obtains is 

 to show to all the world that, whatever may be 

 Britain's brave show, her feet are but as feet of 

 clay. This is a question which cannot be treated 

 as a party or a political one; it is a national 

 question as much as if not more so than even the 

 Navy. There may be differences of opinion as 

 to taxation, as to State assistance, but these 

 differences should not be allowed to form part 

 of political wrangles and competition — they 

 should form the subjects of round-table discus- 

 sions. For the welfare of agriculture is life or 

 death to us all, the rabid Radical and the callous 

 Conservative alike. It is interesting to note 

 that, even in the present parlous state of agricul- 

 ture, there is no other occupation in the United 

 Kingdom in which so many people are engaged 

 as in the work of the land. This it is, of course, 

 which leads from time to time politicians to 

 devise wonderfully-created land policies — to 



catch votes, not to feed the hungry. The time 

 has passed for all that now ; facts must be 

 looked straight in the face and the nation must 

 make up Its mind. We confess that we do not 

 see how there can be any difference of opinion 

 in the matter. To think otherwise would be 

 tantamount to saying that there existed a real 

 preference for, say, the Danish egg to the 

 British, or that the wheat of Russia was more 

 attractive than that grown in a home county. 



BRITISH GOODS PREFERRED. 



That, of course, is nonsense, and we have only 

 to look at the shop-windows to prove that in the 

 minds of the salesmen at least there is nothing 

 more certain than that the British citizen prefers 

 his own produce. This being so, there is no 

 prejudice to be overcome, although we can well 

 believe that a well-grown lettuce will always 

 compete favourably in a British market with a 

 badly grown one, even if the former comes from 

 France and not from Kent. That only shows 

 that efficiency must accompany agricultural 

 revival — in other words, that the new era must 

 be inaugurated after taking thought and 

 deciding upon general lines of advance. The 

 journey of a thousand miles begins with a single 

 step; it is for us to see that it be taken in the 

 right direction. Nor will it suffice to confine 

 the study and discussion to scientific methods 

 and chemical conditions alone; there must be a 



I860 



,1 ,1 



Grown 

 7b°/o 



mv . - 



V 



Imported 



1910 



•^^^^'%L 



mM^ 



Home Grown 

 28/0 



Imported 



72/0 



<JI!AV 



After Mf(y Venrs' "ProdrcsB" in Adriculiurc 1 



llow the relative proportions of home-grnwn .iiul imported whcnt have liccome Irnnsposcd during the Inst fifty years ; 

 Dotu tli.-it 'iiily rvlntivei not ncluni, qti.-intities nre indicated, 



