Our experience during the war shows what can be done
in the way of increased output. With a reduced army of labour upon the land, and though much of that labour is highly unskilled, the area brought under the plough has exceeded that of the early " seventies " of last century—the heyday of British arable farming, For forty years since then the tendency of British agriculture has been to abandon the risks of corn-growing and to bring land down to grass. A smaller number of farmers was the result. The grass farmer was not exposed to the old alarming fluctuations of fortune, but the land produced only a fragment of what the nation required for its nutriment, and rural Britain was drifting towards decay. For our part, we rejoice in the prospect that now the corner has been turned we shall pursue our journey permanently along the road we have chosen. Lord Selbome's Report deserves the most serious and sympathetic consideration.
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