12 
LAND & WATER 
November tji 19 
10, 
civilised psychology is far superior to that of the 
Prussian vjovcrnment, for the Polish nobles are wholly 
western in their traditions, and what may be called the 
i-^uropean standard among them is very high, it will not 
be more than a minority of them which svill suffer even 
a partial illusion as to the future of the great war. 'f hey 
know very well that Western Europe, with its ancient 
civilisation, has always proved stronger than any attack 
that any barbarian could make, and that sooner or later 
the barbarian always suffers for his insolence, whatever 
liis odds of numbc'rs or surprise. 
There is, as a third factor, the natural reluctance of 
any population morally or technically nriitral to be used 
as pawns in that game which is now reaching a fatal term 
for our enemies. 1 his reluctance stands clearly apparent 
among the smaller nations. It has inlfuenced the 
action of all those in the occupied territories. It often 
takes the form, as in the casoof the Bulgarians, of refusal 
to act outside a limited province in favour of their Allies, 
although they should have cast th« die for action antl 
have abandoned neutrality. 
Lastly, there is the factor — the unknown factor — of 
the future accidents of this war. 
Conceiv e a Polish recruitment undertaken and, let us 
say, a fifth or sixth of its total potential numbers already 
engaged. The accidents of the near future will affect all 
voluntary action upon tlicpart of the rest. It is true that 
l)rogress by the Alliance is likely to be le?s rapid in the 
winter months than in the coming spring, but the winter 
will not be ([uiescent. We must not he dccei\ed by 
the parallel of last year when the winter lull was so largely 
due to the necessity for accumulating munitions. And 
since it is not possible for the instructors available, the 
opportunities of space, etc., available, to train more than 
comparatively small fractions from the new recruiting field 
at a time, the attempt to use that field will certainly lind 
the Allies" spring offensives disturbing all the enemy's 
calculations long before it has been fully exploited. 
To sttm up. The enemy's opportunity of finding here 
any very considerable recruitment is to be doubted. He 
will certainly not obtain the whole of what he is bidding 
for. It is doubtful that he will obtain the half. In 
other W'Ords, he probably will ;,dd 10 per cent, to his 
existing reserves most certainlj' can not add another 15 
per cent. 
But there remains another parallel political considera- 
tion which, added to the dexelopment of the war as it 
proceeds adversely to the Central Empires, will come 
into play. It is simj)ly this. The word of Prussia is of 
no \alue. And here we may remark that it is more likely 
that certain sections of educated and partly cosmopolitan 
opinion in the provinces affected, will be moved to beUevc 
a little in a Prussian promise than will the populace. 
True, there is here no Polish tradition of Prussian dup- 
licity such as has been familiar to everj^ Frenchman for 
a life time, and such as is now familiar to every English- 
man. But the Prussian method will of itself suggest that 
duplicity, hor it is like everything else that Prussia has 
done since the first disastrous miscalculation which caused 
her to commit her fust abominations in Belgium and Nor- 
thern France, a compromise and a compromise of the blund- 
ering sort which we expect from hands whose lingers are 
all thumbs. They will not produce a native dynasty for 
Poland, They cannot even i)romise a united Poland. 
They will emphasise local autonomies which are immaterial 
to an inteUigent and chivalric people with strong tradi- 
tions Iik(! tile Poles — they will be compelled to water 
down all exiJiessions of that general and national 
freedom, which is for the Poles the one great good desired. 
Then those who do not as yet appreciate — for they ha\ e 
not had any experience of it — the fact that a Prussian 
Treaty is no Treaty and a Prussian Convention a trick 
whose authors rely ui)on the shortness of memory, of the 
chances of fate in their favour, will feel that the offer 
made them is strangely imperfect — calculatedly imperfect 
— and no advance towards the great national goal, but 
rather a lure to leave the straight road towards that 
goal, the straight road that has hitherto been so 
steadfastly pursued in s|)ite of a ceiitury of martyrdom. 
The alternative the Poles know very well, and though 
it cannot reach them by printed sheet or spoken word, 
for they are strictly imprisoned within the (jcrman, linc^, 
they are sufiiciently conscious of the part it will play in 
the final settlement to weaken the eflect of this last of 
Prussia's desperate throws. I'or the alicrnali\i is c ne 
of a united Pelcnd. The great ideals aniniaiing all the 
Allies in this v/ar of adviv.icc against, resistance to, and 
ultimate destruction of the Prussian mcral chaos make 
the restoration of Poland certain. The dcstinjes of the new 
nation will only be marred in propcrtion i:s seme fraction 
may in this hour of trial pro\ e weak and consent to betray 
the common cause of ci\ilistd Europe. They ha\ebut to 
stand steadfast for a little while and Ihcy will obtain from 
the very force of events their necessary place in the newly 
enfranchised States of Europe. They know this most of 
them instinctively, some of them with a conscious and 
detailed knowledge. But all cf them l:now it. And all 
of them also know that the mcmcntary yielding of a fcv/ 
under the illusion crer.ted by their (icrman captors i.; 
the only Ihini^ that ccui diniini;'.: Ihvir future reward. 
Science and Agriculture 
By Christopher Turnor 
[Mr. Christopher Turnor is one of the leading scientific 
agrictilsurists in England. He writes out of personal 
experience, and his arguments are not mere rhetoric but 
the record of accomplished fact. He is the author of 
"Land Probkms and National Welfare," "Our Food 
Supply " and other standard works.] 
C„ H,„ O-, is the chemist's sj'mbol foe starch. To 
me it also stands for a symbol of the mighty 
change in agriculture, the coming of which in this 
country, at long last, is now being heralded to all 
who have eyes to see and ears to hear. 
True, the change is only new to us : other nations 
effected it long ago— to their great advantage— -and our 
detriment. In Denmark the fact of having substituted, 
for the bucolic pursuit of agriculture a highly organised 
industry of food production enables that little but really 
great country to compel us to buy from her evT<jry year 
some £20,000,000 worth of butter, pork, and eggii;at her 
own price. In Germany the scientific organi,sation of 
the jModuclion of food and raw material .(for ,sub,sidi^r,y 
industries) enables her, among other things, to, i;<>taiii her 
fighting spirit in the grip of a blockade which, |»<.cording 
to -xpectations, ought to have choked her long ago. 
And in Belgium, to give another and perhaps the most 
conclusive proof of wiiat scientific organisation i)lv:s 
thrift can do, the average yield per acre has been ;,Tadually 
raised until it is now more than five times the average 
yield of our English soil. 
The change was brought about by the advent into 
agriculture of the scientist. To his analytical mind 
farming appeared as a continuous process of taking 
chances— that is, gambling with factors of which we have 
no accurate knowledge ; but being a scientist he also 
knew^ that it w ould be utterly impossible for the individual 
farmer to acquire all the accurate knowledge necessary 
for transforming farming into a rational procedure in 
which you may secure, within certain reasonable limits, 
the results which you set out to secure. He therefore 
offered to go into partnership with agriculture, and 
estabhsh under the firm of "Practice and Science " a 
great industry of producing not only food, but also raw 
material lor many new subsidiary industries. 
For the English farmer, whom" tradition has glorified 
as " the best farmer in the world," it w'as not an easy 
thing to believe that he was really as ignorant of the 
science of food production as the scientist w^ould make 
out, and therefcHV as badly in need of the scientist's 
assistance ; but the Continental farmers, having less 
reason to be s(|ueamish, either received the scientist's 
offer of help with open arms, as in Denmark, or were 
^1 
