THE CULTIVATION OF VEGETABLES. 
5 
THE CULTIVATION OF VEGETABLES. 
By Edwin Beckett, V.M.H. 
[Read March 13, 191 7 ; Rev. J. Jacob in the Chair.] 
There is no gainsaying that the increase of our food supplies must 
be of untold benefit to the community at any time, and especially in 
these critical days. 
The writer of an article in one of our weeklies puts the matter very 
forcibly when he says that, for the very sake of the security of our 
national food supply, there is urgent need of a greatly increased pro- 
duction at home, and greater employment of men on agricultural 
land. He further states, what some of us have been emphasizing for 
years, that our home production of food is infinitesimal, and in the 
event of a successful blockade of our coasts we should soon be reduced 
to a state of starvation. 
Home production of food would develop the country's resources, 
and so reduce our indebtedness to, and dependence upon, foreign 
lands. At the same time it would " colonize England," and give a 
much-needed stimulus to the decadent agricultural and horticultural 
industries. 
It has recently been estimated that there are at least seventeen 
million acres of waste land in the British Isles, out of a total area of 
seventy-seven and a half million acres, and if only one-half of these, at 
present, unproductive acres could be brought under cultivation, an 
enormous benefit would accrue to the nation at large. This applies 
especially in the direction of vegetable cultivation, when it is con- 
sidered that, in the years 191 3 and 191 4 respectively, no less than 
£6,000,000 and £5,500,000 worth of vegetables were imported from 
abroad, practically the whole of which could have been raised at home. 
It was originally my intention to present for your consideration 
a paper on the cultivation of the culinary pea, but, after the strong 
appeals made by the Prime Minister and Mr. Prothero regarding 
food production, I ventured to write our Secretary suggesting that 
a more opportune subject would be Vegetable Cultivation, and I was 
exceedingly pleased to receive a reply from him concurring with the 
idea. 
There are many who would do their share, and even more, in the 
national work of food production on allotment and small garden, 
who have only very vague ideas of commencing and advancing the 
cultivation and cropping of a plot of ground. These are the folk 
who need helpful advice from the members of the Royal Horticultural 
Society, and, even though all such members are experts, yet points 
