October ii, 1917 
LAND & WATER 
LAND & WATER 
OLD SERJEANTS' INN. LONDON, W.C. 
Telephone HOLBORN 2828. 
THURSDAY, OCTOBER II, 1917 
CONTENTS 
For Liberty and Jusfice. By Ix)uis Raemaekers 
The Farmers' Job. (Ixacl^r) " 
Haig's Third Blow. By Hilairc Belloc 
Kercnski and Korniloff. By M. A. Czaplicka 
Salonika's Great Fire. B\' H. <"olliason Owen 
.Mrs. Meynell. By J. C. Squire 
The Sower of Tares. By Onturion 
Air Squailrons. Bv Francis Stopford 
.'\utuinn Days in Flanders. By an C)fficor 
Some Lighter Literature 
'Ihe British Firing Line. (Photographs) 
Domestic Economv 
Kit and Equipment* 
P.\GE 
I 
.T 
4 
iS 
II 
12 
I ; 
15 
17 
iS 
2(1 
25 
THE FARMER'S JOB 
To begin with, let it be said that the last word of this 
headline reads job not Job, for to write of British 
agriculture always rather itnplies that the subject 
matter deals with a lineal descendant of the most 
patient man who ever lived. The speech which the Minister 
of Agriculture delivered before the Farmers' Protection 
Association at Darlington last week is the most statesmanlike 
utterance that has been made on the subject for many 
years. We cannot help thinking that Mr. Prothero had before 
his eyes not so much his immediate audience as the hosts 
of town-dwellers who are looking more and more to the local 
countryside for their food. He has made it clear that agri- 
culture to-day — profitable agriculture that is to say~is a 
most scientific industrj-, and that the husbandry of our com- 
paratively restricted area of ancient tillage is interdependent 
on the whole conduct of farming. To stimulate com pro- 
duction, highly fed cattle are neccssar\' ; and ploughland 
is needed for an increased output of milk. These are two 
rudimentary illustrations of the nicely adjusted operations of 
agriculture. The keeper of flocks and the tiller of the ground 
are the two oldest and most jealous types of agriculture, 
but to-day if Cain slays Abel, if the husbandman wages war 
on the herdsman or vice versa, the whole country must SAiffer, 
for. the operations of the two are correlated- 
Do people, I wonder, realise the extra cost of cutting corn whicli 
hiis been flattened by rain and twisted by wind ? Do thev 
recognise how much a man is out of pf)Cket if he has to brinR 
his men and horses into the field day by day, and send them 
home after waiting for hours because it'is raining ? Do they 
consider that, this j-ear, after the corn has been gathered into 
shelves, it has often been necessar>' to scatter the sheaves 
again, and even to untiethe bundles in ordertogiveit achance 
of drying ? Do they think of the quantities of seed that have 
Ix-en shaken out jf the ear and lost, or the amount of corn 
that is damaged or sprouted ? 
Do they ? Little if at all. But these few questions puj; by 
Mr. Prothero will bring home to the general public the <iiffi- 
culties that confront the farmer, especially in this present year 
when the broken weather of August and the fir?t half of 
September are frosli in the memory. For tens of thousands 
the rain during those critical weeks meant spoiled holidays, 
they did not pause to' remember it also implied mined 
liar\-ests, the loss in cash of thousands of pounds to farmers, 
and eventual loss to thcm»;elves through the increased cost 
of food. There was no real cause whv thev should think 
othcrwsp. Until a year or two ago a field of 'wheat ripening 
rerl-gold beneath the hot sun of late summer was merely 
a pretty sight to thousands of town-dwellers ; it had no con- 
nection with the bread upon their tables. This year they 
might weeks later have re-visited the same fields and found the 
sheaves still lying there, black and rotting and the grain sprout- 
mg ; this has happened more than once this centur\' in ex- 
ceptionally wet autumns. The sight formerly was for 
*'" "' "S'V one, but nothing more, for their flour-tubs were 
always full, fresh-baked loaves ever on their boards at a low 
price, since the granaries of the worid poured their surplus 
into the country through our unmolested merchant fleets. 
But at last the townsmen are learning that English liejds 
are in truth as necessary to their well-being as English 
factories, and they begin to comprehend that the farmer is 
as valuable a unit of national life as the manufacturer or 
banker. Presently they will learn that in some respects 
he is even more essential. 
The Ministry of Agriculture has a difficult r61e to play. 
It has to offer every encouragement to the farming interests 
to augment production, but it is unable to fix prices which 
from a business point of view is the most essential detail 
of all, Mr. Prothero did right to dweS on this point in his 
speech, and we regret his remarks should have been made 
the occasion by certain political journals to foment jealousy 
and trouble between the Ministries of Agriculture and of 
Food. Fortunately the Heads of these two Depart- 
ments are neither of them Party politicians, botli practical 
men, who have escaped that form of neurasthenia which 
seems at times to paralyse the will power of thoge who have 
pa.ssed long years in the infected atmosphere of the Roval 
Palace of Westminster. The Ministr>' of Food had previously 
made concessions in the price of milk, and yesterday it did 
the same over meat. Neither Lord Rhondda nor any other 
reasonable being expects the whole burden to fall on the 
producer ; the consumer is willing to bear his sliare of it. 
Mr. Prothero is a believer in decentralisation ; he is doing 
his utmost to push forward the work he has undertaken through 
local Committees to whom he paid a well-deserved tribute 
of gratitude. He has set before British agriculture a not 
impossible task; he asks them in 1918 to equal the corn pro- 
duction of 1872. Of course this is dependent on the weather, 
but if farmers will meet his wishes and put their backs 
into the job, there is no reason under fairly favourable cir- 
cumstances why it should not be accomplished. Mr. 
Prothero, who has always been most outspoken on the 
question of food supplies, did well to remind jtis that peace 
will not bring plenty in its immediate train. When war ends, 
we shall be short both of money and of ships. In all pro- 
bability, com will be scarce ; certainly it will be dear to buy 
and difficult to carry. The more com, therefore, that we caii 
grow in this country, the better able we shall be to feed 
our people, and the less we shall be forced to buy abroad, 
the more money we shall keep in these islands, the more 
ships we shall set free to bring over tho.se raw materials of 
manufacture on which millions of townsmen depend. 
This is a vital fact the consumer will do well to bear 
in mind. Germany still comforts herself publicly wath me 
thought that England is to be compelled to sue for peace 
through the success of her submarines. Privately,' thosei 
responsible for this campaign are aware that up to now it hasi 
Ix-en a failure, just as we here know it to be. But this failure 
can only be absolutely assured if the people of these islands 
continue to practice rigid economy. Wastfe or extravagance in 
living might even now do for the country what German 
naval " f rightfulness " has failed to achieve. Each one of us 
has to regulate his consumption of the necessities of life as 
though we lived in " a beleaguered city," to quote Mr. 
Prot hero's own comparison. 
It were well to repeat the exhortation to farmers with which 
the Minister of Agriculture closed his speech at Darlington : 
The task which is set to farmers and labcmrers will test their 
grit to the utmost. They are on their trial before the eyes 
not only of this nation but of the Allies. Heavy odds are 
against them. They are handicapped by the want of skilled 
lat)oiir, by the shqrtage of fertilisers, feeding stuffs, horses 
and implements, by the interferences and uncertainties 
which follow in the train of a colossal war.' But every added 
quarter of grain, every extra pound of meat, everj' additional 
quart of milk will help to turn the scale in the nation's favour. 
No greater responsibility has ever rested on the inhabitants 
of these islands than that which rests to-day on those who 
cultivate the soil. 
This exhortation is admirable, but it would be foolishness 
to assume that the present food situation will only test the grit 
of the farmer and labourer. There is not ;in inhabitant of 
these islands, who has not a part to play in this mighty 
trial of strength. But Government ought to take immediate 
action to prevent the swarms of selfish and cowardly 
aliens from defeating the object in view. So long as these 
creatures have money they consider they have the right to 
buy and consume food freely. It is a seriovts danger. 
