1922.] The Future of British Agriculture. 399 



farming to the dry climate aud the soils of lighter texture. 1 

 do not think so. So I reach my third and last reason for my 

 faith in tillage. Neither a moist climate nor a heavy soil 

 restrict farmers to grass. There are arable crops which are 

 equally adapted to these natural conditions, equally suited for 

 the summer production of meat and milk, superior to pasture 

 in supply of winter food, and yielding a much greater weight of 

 fodder all the year round. Such are seeds, mangolds, vetches, 

 peas, kale, rape and combinations of crops like oats and tares, 

 or oats and peas, or rye and vetches. Some can be fed direct 

 in winter; some can be turned into hay or ensilage for winter 

 use; others can be fed green in the summer. Such a system 

 lends itself to great extension and development. It reduces to 

 a minimum the ration of roots, which, on the decennial aver- 

 age of a yield of under 14 tons to the acre, are absolutely 

 ruinous to produce. It makes it possible to carry on three 

 acres, two cows instead of one, maintain them in good health, 

 and obtain an increased yield of milk. Keep your eyes open 

 for the Reports of the Harper Adams College, and study the 

 system wherever you find it even partially adopted. 



Meanwhile, let me point out the features in which the system 

 satisfies some of the requirements of which I have been speak- 

 ing. It satisfies the demands of the community, for it produces 

 per acre more food and employs more labour than grass. It 

 profits by all the aid that science can render in the directions 

 which we have traversed. It enables a heavier head of stock to 

 be carried, whether for the dairy or the butcher, than can be 

 carried on grass, and thus unites the corn-grow T ing and live- 

 stock industries in one common enterprise. It can utilise all 

 that science may have to teach on the improvement of live 

 stock for the various purposes for which they are bred, on their 

 most economic yet efficient feeding, on their protection or cure 

 from disease. It will give farmers command of more manure, 

 and of richer manure, because it will be derived, not only from 

 young growing animals, but from dairy cattle and, still more, 

 from fatting beasts. It sets in' motion the familiar round of 

 the more fodder, the more stock; the more stock, the more 

 manure: the more manure, the more fodder crops. 



These are the main reasons why I think that the future of 

 British agriculture is bound up, sooner or later, and, in my 

 belief, sooner rather than later, in arable farming. 



May I close on a different note? I accepted your President's 

 invitation, because T take a semi-fatherly interest in the success 



