764 TRANSACTIONS OP SECTION M. 



of view that two of the most plentiful crops were wheat and potatoes. The 

 head of cattle was very satisfactory, being the largest on record, and pigs were 

 well above average. Sheep, always apt to fluctuate in numbers, were much 

 below average, the total being the smallest since 1882 with the exception of 1913. 



On the whole, it was a good year agriculturally, and the supply of home- 

 grown produce at the beginning of the war was bountiful. Nature at any rate 

 had provided for us more generously than we had a right to expect. 



At first it appeared as if farmers were likely to be sufferers rather than 

 gainers by the war. Prices of feeding-stuffs, especially linseed and cotton- 

 cakes, maize-meal, rice-meal, and barley-meal, rose at once, recruiting affected 

 the labour supply, and difficulties arose in the distribution of produce by rail. 

 With one or two exceptions, such as oats, the prices of farm produce showed 

 but little rise for three or four months after the war began. Wheat rose about 

 10 per cent., barley remained about normal, cattle by November had not risen 

 more than 3 per cent., sheep and veal-calves showed no rise until December, 

 while poultry was actually cheaper than usual, though eggs rose considerably. 

 Butter rose slightly, and cheese remained about normal. Up to nearly the end 

 of the year, in fact, it may be said generally that British farm-produce made 

 very little more money than usual. 



Meanwhile the nation began to take a keen interest in the agricultural 

 resources of the country, and farming became the object of general solicitude. 

 We started with great energy to improvise, in truly British fashion, the means 

 of facing the supreme crisis of our fate, but the elementary fact at once became 

 obvious that it is impossible to improvise food. The main farm-crops take an 

 unreasonably long time to grow, even if the land is prepared for them, and a 

 sudden extension of the area under cultivation is not a simple proposition, it 

 was freely pointed out — with undeniable truth — that our agricultural system 

 had not been arranged to meet the conditions of a great European war, and 

 many suggestions were made to meet the emergency. Some of these sugges- 

 tions involved intervention by legislativ* or administrative action. It was 

 decided that any attempt violently to divert the course of farming from its 

 normal channels w'ould probably not result in an increased total production 

 from the land. The Agricultural Consultative Committee, appointed by the 

 President of the Board of Agriculture on August 10, issued some excellent 

 advice to farmers as to their general line of policy and the best means by which 

 they could serve the nation, and this was supplemented by the Board and by 

 the agricultural colleges and local organisations throughout the country. No 

 less than thirty special leaflets were issued by the Board, but, while it may, I 

 think, fairly be claimed that all the recommendations made officially were sound 

 and reasonable, I should be the last to aver that farmers were universally guided 

 by them. They do not accept official action effusively : 



' Unkempt about those hedges blows 

 An English unofficial rose,' 



and official plants do not flourish naturally in farm hedgerows. It was, how- 

 ever, fairly evident that patriotism would suggest an effort to obtain the maxi- 

 mum production from the land, and there were good reasons to think that self- 

 interest would indicate the same course. It must be admitted, how^ever, that 

 during the autumn the lure of self-interest was not very apparent. Food-prices, 

 however, at the end of the year began to rise rapidly. English wheat in 

 December was 25 per cent, above the July level, in January 45 per cent., in 

 February and March 60 per cent., and in May 80 per cent. Imported wheat 

 generally rose to a still greater extent, prices in May standing for No. 2 North 

 Manitoba 95 per cent., and No. 2 Hard Winter 90 per cent, above July level. 

 The greater rise in imported wheat may be noted as vindicating farmers against 

 the charge which was made against them of unreasonably withholding their 

 wheat from the market. Cattle and sheep rose more slowly, but in March 

 prices of both had risen by 20 per cent., and in May and June cattle had risen 

 by about 40 per cent. Butter rose by about 20 per cent, and cheese by about 

 40 per cent. Milk rose little through the winter, but when summer contracts 

 were made prices remained generally at the winter level. 



British agi-iculture, like the British Isles, is a comparatively small affair, 



