Present and Suggested Sources 



Why bother about our food supply ? " But 

 the question is not so simple, and it would 

 be wise to bestow careful thought upon it ; 

 and conditions created by the war already 

 accentuate the need for careful thought. 



In thinking out measures which will 

 increase the amount of our home supplies, 

 the permanent development of agriculture 

 must be the aim. Attempts to increase, 

 hastily and temporarily, the production of 

 the soil must be ineffective and can easily be 

 actually harmful. We must get to the root 

 of the matter. Present conditions affecting 

 agriculture are unsound and unsatisfactory ; 

 better ones must be created. 



It is in the first place a business question. 

 If the farmer is to produce a great deal more 

 than he does at present, he must be made 

 more sure of his profits, he must be enabled 

 to increase his lawful profits ; then he will be 

 willing to improve his methods, and to put 

 more capital, labour, and care into the culti- 

 vation of the soil. Sir Horace Plunkett's 

 phrase, " Better business, better farming, 

 better living," puts it in a nutshell. 



For many years the tendency has been to 

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