84 



THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE 



Table 9 Production of Root Crops and Hay ('000 tons) 



800 t 



700 1 



600 ; 



500 } 



400 f 

 300 1 

 200 ! 



1916 1917 191E 



! Root Crops Hay 



Table 10 Livestock ('000) 



400. 



Hi Sheep 

 Othsr Cattle 



1917 1918 



M Cows in Milk 



to 28,781 in 1919 (i.e. less than half). Again the 

 main cause was said to be the shortage of feeding 

 stuffs. Milling offals, barley meal and maize meal 

 had been widely used but these came to be in short 

 supply and more expensive as they were increasingly 

 used for human consumption. The decrease in 

 sheep and pigs was more marked in Wiltshire than 

 in England as a whole. By the end of the war, 

 Wiltshire had 2.03% of the country's sheep 

 compared with 2.78% in 1914; the share of pigs 

 also decreased from 2.51% to 1.77%. 



The overall decrease in livestock was perhaps 

 the reason for a similar decrease in the production 

 of root crops (turnips, swedes and mangolds) . The 

 output of 713,036 tons in 1914 must be compared 

 with the very much smaller one of only 299,000 

 tons in 1919. But the area devoted to potatoes, 

 although only small, doubled during the war and 

 the output increased from 14,197 tons to 32,000 

 tons. This probably reflected the fact that potatoes 

 were relatively easy to grow and were likely to 

 produce high yields of foodstuff. 



REGULATION 



The First World War saw the regulation of industry 

 and many aspects of everyday life on a quite 

 unprecedented scale. Conscription into the armed 

 forces and the compulsory ploughing of grass land 

 were, perhaps, the most significant items affecting 

 agriculture but there was a host of other minor 

 regulations with which farmers had to contend. 



The shortage of wheat after 1916-17 was met 

 by a set of rules on the production and sale of bread 

 which must be seen alongside the increase in arable 

 land. The most important of the changes was to 



increase the extraction rate of flour from wheat. 

 Before the war it had normally been about 70%; in 



1 9 1 6 it was raised to 8 1 % and later it went as high 

 as 90%. Bread had to contain at least 10% and not 

 more than 25% of flour made from cereals other 

 than wheat. These cereals were barley, maize, oats, 

 rye and beans. Soya bean flour could also be used 

 but it was limited to 5%. This resulted in a 'grey' 

 loaf which was unpopular and subject to constant 

 complaints. However, it has been argued that this 

 resulted in a greater contribution to the nation's 

 food supply (an additional 1.8 billion calories in 



1917 and 3.7 billion in 1918) than the ploughing 

 campaign achieved. 64 The regulations also said that 

 bread must not be sold until at least 1 2 hours after 

 it had been made and some Wiltshire bakers were 

 successfully prosecuted for breaches of this rule. 

 Presumably one was likely to eat less bread if it was 

 stale than if it was new; also, perhaps, new bread is 

 very difficult to slice thinly and this would mean 

 greater consumption. 65 



At the beginning of the war, the army 

 commandeered a large number of horses from local 

 farms. The army's need for a continuing supply of 

 horses was also the reason given for the support of 

 hunting during the war. In 1915, for example, the 

 Director of Remounts was urging the military 

 tribunals to look sympathetically on hunt employees 

 as hunting was a means of continuing the breeding 

 and raising of light horses suitable for cavalry 

 work. 66 In fact the whole trade in horses was closely 

 regulated throughout the war. In 1 9 1 7 David Cutler 

 was summonsed for selling a horse to Herbert Hill. 

 Cutler had obtained a licence to sell the horse at 

 Salisbury market but only to someone who 

 occupied an agricultural holding. Hill used the 

 horse for carting road materials. Despite claiming 



