1 1 98 Farming in Peace and in War. [mar.^ 



In this connection I should explain that the figures showing, 

 meat production in the period 1909-13 are based on the 

 official figures of the Ministry of Agriculture and the Board of 

 Trade. The experience of the Ministry of Food points to the 

 conclusion that we have over-estimated our pre-war home meat 

 supply. 



The Population maintained by British Soil. — The changes in our 

 system of farming in the past 50 years have had one result 

 which I believe few among us have realised. It is that, in 

 spite of the great advances made by British farmers between the 

 close of the Napoleonic wars and the depression of the late 

 'seventies, the population we were feeding from our own soil 

 in the period 1909-13 was little greater than it was a century 

 before, and it was substantially less than it was 75 years 

 ago. 



In the period 1 801 -10 the soil of the United Kingdom fed 

 about i6| millions, and in the period 1831-40 about 24 J millions,, 

 while in 1909-13 I estimate the number to have been 17 J 

 millions. The standard of living had, of course, much advanced 

 by the beginning of the 20th cent\iry ; beef and mutton were 

 more plentiful, oatmeal and potatoes were less in evidence ; 

 but in spite of this change in the quality of the food British 

 agriculture has no reason to be proud of the results of her 

 e:Korts to maintain the British people. It is true that the 

 British people did not ask to be supplied with food from their 

 own land, and more and more relied on imports ; thus they 

 entered on the M'orld Wox with a supply of home-grown food 

 that would last them from about 6 p.m. on Friday till 10,0 a.m. 

 on Monday in each week. Nor is there, it may be remarked, 

 any substantial change to-day ; we are more or less cheerfully, 

 according to our dispositions and our knowledge, or want of 

 knowledge, facing a world situation which, in the matter of 

 food production, no one can forecast, with a week-end supply 

 assured from our own land. 



The Plough Policy. — It was generally known that the greater 

 part of Britain's food supply came from overseas, but in 1914 

 it was not generally realised that from the products of our own 

 soil we were feeding a population very little larger than the 

 population which the land of the country maintained a century 

 before. Nor was it realised that this state of affairs was largely 

 caused by the system of husbandry which our farmers were 

 forced to adopt because of the depression of the late years 

 of the 19th century. 



