THE HOMECROFT POLICY.
[To the Editor of the. SPECTATOR.] SIR,—I was of all people naturally the most thrilled by the announcement in your issue of October 18th that the Spectator had in mind to add to its many public services in that kind, by instituting shortly an Experimental Inquiry into the pos- sibilities of Homccrofting.
Might I he permitted to premise one thing at this point, after which all seems to me to become comparatively easy ? It is this. Homecrofting, briefly described, is the whole art of creating your own food with your own hands. The aim is to see how far this resource against evil times could be given to people. It is an art, however, whose full potentialities have hardly yet begun to be explored systematically. We have to note that it is not merely a question of small hus- bandry. It is a question of small husbandry with domestic management co-ordinated. The real issue before us, there- fore, is not, " What can any ordinary person do by merely starting in ? " but rather, " What can the expert accomplish, and make common property, and ultimately teach to the ordinary man ?"
With this in view, what is most of all wanted now is the assembling of sufficient data to show that the task is hopeful, and just how hopeful it is. We want to know definitely what can 'oe done even now with such resources as a person could be given, and with such resources as people happen to have ; so that the results may be used in order to get the full attention of the Agricultural Colleges, with all their scientific resources, to the problem of the food garden. Many of us arc fully convinced that the synthetic food garden. could, by itself, if successful, save the economic situation from the worst ; and combined with other conceivable reforms could perhaps save it altogether.—I am, Sir, &c., J. W. Scorr. University College, Cardiff.
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