684 



Agriculture Behind the Lines. 



[Nov,, 



It may be wondered why existing farms w^ere not taken over 

 for this purpose far behind the fighting front. It must be 

 remembered, however, that time was short, the season far 

 advanced if any ploughing and planting were to be done in 

 time for the harvest of 1918, and the only course to adopt, 

 which would not give rise to endless negotiations with private 

 French owners, was to select, in consultation with the French 

 Authorities, an area in the Zorjc Iriterdite, namely, th-^ land 

 from which French civilians had been evacuated and to which 

 they could not return. No vexatious questions as to ownership 

 arose as regards the cultivation of this area, as it was controlled 

 by the French Military Authorities, so long as it remained 

 closed to civilian inhabitants. IVToreover, the French had lost 

 so much territory that it would not have been wise to suggest 

 taking over farms which were actually being farmed. Naturally 

 with so many farmers dispossessed from the devastated area, 

 the French wanted for their own cultivation all the land they 

 could retain. 



The early months of 1918 will certainly never be forgotten by 

 those who were engaged in equipping the Directorate with 

 staff, with special Labour Companies for the execution of the 

 work of cultivation, in collecting suitable men as tractor 

 drivers, and last but not least, in the supply of agricultural 

 machinery. The energy and rapidity shown by the War Agri- 

 cultural Committee in England in the supply and despatch to 

 France of agricultural machinery was only equalled by the 

 speed w^ith which the Director-General of Transportation dealt 

 with it, as it arrived at Havre and sent it up to the railhead in 

 the vicinity of Eoye. 



The appointment of the Directorate of Agricultural Produc- 

 tion was approved by the War Office early in January and 

 Brig. -Gen. the Earl of Kadnor, who was appointed Director, 

 proceeded to France on the 2nd of that month. By the 2nd 

 February, 1918, no fewer than 59 tractors, 74 rollers, 40 

 harrows, 50 cultivators and 33 cases of tractor ploughs were 

 actually on the site at Eoye, while a further 35 tractors, 30 

 rollers, 17 tractor ploughs and numerous cases of spares were 

 at Havre waiting to be put on rail. 



On the same date a tractor plough turned its first furrow. 



The Headquarters of the Directorate were in the first in- 

 stance located at Le Touquet as it was essential that, while 

 the necessary staff was being collected and other preliminary 

 arrangements made, close touch should be kept with the 



