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Agriculture Behind the Lines. [Dec, 



possibility of undertaking a new agricultural venture similar to 

 that at Rove was contemplated, and a visit was paid to the rich 

 agricultural country in the vicinity of Orleans, where suitable 

 land could have been obtained. The need for all personnel for 

 work on the lines of defence, and the necessity for the tractors 

 being tuned up again after their long road journey from Rove 

 to Rouen, however, resulted in any further project being aban- 

 doned. 



In the meantime a new problem had arisen. The German 

 advance on the Amiens front was, as will be remembered, fol- 

 lowed by a similar advance on the Second Army front in the 

 neighbourhood of Ypres. As the result of both these advances, 

 the French civilian population was forced to evacuate a* large 

 area which it had believed it could occupy indefinitely with 

 safety. This area had in the ordinary course been planted, 

 chiefly with wheat, and in due course would have yielded a rich 

 harvest. 



The prospect of a world shortage of food could not be over- 

 looked, and the French Authorities consequently did not view 

 with equanimity the prospect of losing the harvest, even from 

 the 200,000 acres which were involved. They accordingly began 

 to urge on the British Authorities at G.H.Q. the importance 

 of steps being taken to save the harvest in this area, which had 

 now become a Zone Interdite. 



It was finally decided that the Directorate should not be aban- 

 doned, but should be retained in a curtailed form for the purpose 

 of organising the harvesting of this area on a proper basis, and 

 in June the Directorate was instructed to begin operations again. 

 The French Government undertook to pay for the labour of 

 harvesting, to place their interpreters at the disposal of the 

 British Authorities, and to allow the Directorate to use all avail- 

 able agricultural machinery belonging to the evacuated civilian 

 population which could be found in the area. Through the 

 agency of the agricultural officers with each Army, large quan- 

 tities of this machinery had been salved in the course of the 

 retreat and collected into convenient dumps. 



The task, however, was not an easy one. As has already been 

 indicated, the labour supplied in the first instance to the Direc- 

 torate and formed into agricultural companies had been drafted 

 for operations in connection with the construction of defences, 

 and preparations were by now already afoot for the great Allied 

 offensive which was to terminate in the Armistice of November, 

 1918. The reconstruction of the Agricultural Companies there- 



