October ii, 1917 
LAND & WATER 
LAND & WATER 
OLD SERJEANTS' INN. LONDON, W.C. 
Telephone HOLBORN 2828. 
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 11. 1917 
CONTENTS 
For Liberty and Jnstirc. By I-""is Raemaekei' 
The Varmers' Job. (leader) 
Haig's Third Blow. Bv Hilairo Bellnc 
Kerenski and Korniloff. Bv M. A. Czaplicka 
Sakjnika's C.reat Fire. By H. Collinson Owen 
Mr'^. Mevnell. By J. C Squire 
The Sower of Tares. By Centurion 
Air Squadrons. By Francis Stopford 
Autumn Days in Flanders. By an Officer 
Some Lighter Literature 
The British Firing Line. (Photographs) 
Domestic Economy 
Kit and Equipment 
PACE 
1 
4 
,s 
1 1 
12, 
13 
15 
17 
i8 
20 
23 
25 
THE FARMER'S JOB 
To begin with, let it be said that the last word of this 
headUne reads job not Job, for to write of Britisli 
agriculture always rather implies 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 Fanners' Protection 
Association at Darlington las^t 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 industry, and that the husbandry of our com- 
paratively restricted area of ancient tillage is interdependent 
on the whole conduct of farming. To stimulate corn pro- 
duction, highly fed cattle are necessary ; 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 wiiole country must suffer, 
for the operations of the two are correlated. 
Do people, 1 wonder, realise the extra cost of cutting com which 
has been flattened by rain and twisted by wind ? Bo they 
recognise how much a man is out of pocket if- he has to bring 
his men and horses into the field day by day, and send theni 
heme after waiting for hours bcca\isc it is raining ? l>o they 
consider that, this year, after the com has Ixicn gathered into 
slic'ives, it has often been necessary to scatter the sheaves 
again, and even lo untie the bundles in ordertogiveit achance 
ol drving ? Do theV think of the quantities of seed that have 
been '.shaken out pf'the ear and ^.<t ,,r the ainuunt of corn 
that is damaged or sprouted ? 
Do they? Little if at all. But th ■>'■ u-w (pir^tions puj, by 
Mr. Prothero will bring homo to the general public the uiffi- 
cultics that confront the farmer, especially in tliis present year 
when the broken weather of August and the fii"st half of 
September. are fresh in the memory. For tens of thousands 
the rain during those critical weeks meant spoiled holidays, 
they did not pause to remember it also imj)lied ruined 
liarvests, the loss in cash of thousands of pounds to farmers, 
and eventual loss to themselves througli the increased cost 
of food. There was no real cause why they should think 
oth^-rwise. Until a year or two ago a held of wheat ripening 
red-gold beneath the jiot sun' of late summer was merely 
a pretty sight to tliousands of town-dwellers ; it had no con- 
nection with the bread upon their tables. This year they 
might weeks later have re-visifed the same fields and found the 
sheaves still lying there, black and rotting and the grain sprout- 
ing; this has happened more than once this century in ex- 
ceptionally wet auturtms. The sight formerly was for 
them an ugly one, but nothinsr more, for their flour-tubs were 
always full, fresh-baked loaves ever on their boards at a low 
price, since the granaries of the world poured their surplus 
into the country through our unmolested merchant fleets. ^^ 
But at last the townsmen are learning that English fields 
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 dweft 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, both practical 
men, who have escaped that form of neurasthenia which 
seems at times to paralyse the will power of those who have 
passed long years in the infected atmosphere of the Royal 
Palace of Westminster. The Ministry of Food had previously 
made concessions iti 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 share of it. 
Mr. Prothero is a believer in decentralisation ; he is domg 
his utmost to push forward the work he has undertaken through 
local Committees to whom lie 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 reinind us 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 he dear to buy 
and difficult to carry. The more com, therefore, that we can 
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 those raw materials of 
manufacture on which millions of townsmen depend. 
This is a vital fact the consumer will do well to b^ar 
in mind. Germany still comforts herself publicly with the 
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 
lieen 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. Waste or extravagance in 
living might even now do for the country what German 
naval " frightfulness " has failed to achieve. Each one of us 
ha-s to regulate his consumption of the necessities of life as 
though we lived in " a beleaguered city," to quote Mr. 
Prothero's own comparison. 
It were well to repeat the exhortation to farmers with which 
the Minister of .\griculture closed his sp<>ech at Darlington : 
The ta!ik which is set to farmers and labourers will test theif 
grit to the utmost. They are on their tiial before the eyes 
not only of this nation but f)f the Allies. Heavy odds are 
again.st 'them. They are handicapped l)y the want of skilled 
labour, by the shortage of fertilisers, fee'ding 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, every additional 
.quart of milk will help to turn the scale in the nation's favo\ir. 
Mo greater responsibilitv has ever rested on the inhabitants 
of these islands than that which rests to-day on those who 
cultivate the soil. 
This exhortation is .idmirablo, 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 an inhabitant of 
these islands, wlio lias 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 lo 
buy and consume food freely. It is a serious danger. 
