THE POLICY OF THE PLOUGH. T HERE is a good deal

of misunderstanding about the Policy of the Plough which Lord Lee and the present Ministry of Agriculture are doing their best to expound and enforce. At the very back of that policy is, of course, the desire for security, the desire that wheat, the essential food of the nation, should be produced in as great a quantity as possible in this country. Nothing whatever, whether old habits, laziness, or even fear of economic loss, must prevent us making ourselves as far as possible safe from the horrors of actual famine, or of the humiliation of having to beg our bread round the globe at a time when every nation under the sun will be either genuinely anxious about its own supplies or inclined to squeeze all it can out of the rich man in temporary distress. But though this may be, and no doubt is, the power behind the policy, the advocates of the plough have a purely economic basis for their policy. It is here that most of the misunderstanding occurs.

We and all other advocates of the Policy of the Plough are prepared to say that, apart altogether from the question of security, whether you are going to cultivate cereals, or to carry on dairy farming, or to feed stock, you will get a far higher product out of your land if it is under the plough than if it is in pasture—save, of course, on certain exceptional land such as deep rich water meadows or, again, rough wild mountain or moorland. To put it in another way, if, you have got an ordinary field, it will give a far greater product under the plough than it will otherwise. Also, it will give even in a country like England, with its heavy special taxation on the agricultural industry and its high wages, better economic results than could ever be obtained by grass-farming. A very interesting proof of what ordinary farm land will produce under the plough has been sent us by a careful correspondent whose books have been accurately kept and are vouched for by a trained accountant. At the end of January, 1918, the Proprietor, as we will call him, was ordered, like many other people, to plough up 90 acres of pasture land, which in fact constituted the greater part of his park. Everything seemed unfavourable because he had. no proper farm buildings, no farm implements, no labour ready to hand, and in fact no organisation adapted to the purposes of agriculture. Nevertheless, the 90 acres, which before had been producing very little except the ordinary pasturage and hay, produced fairly satis- factory results. When all the expenses were accounted for, including rent and rate of interest on capital used, there was a profit of nearly £200. We should add that in the first year a great deal of the cultivation was rendered useless by the presence of wire-worms. In the next year, that is from March 31st, 1919, to March 31st, 1920, a still more notable product was obtained from the 90 acres. Here is the balance-sheet of that year :— SIR WHITE-BLACK, BART.

Farm Trading Account for the year ended 31st March, 1920.

Dr.£ s. d. Cr.

s. d.

To Purchases of :—

By Sales during year :-

Corn. Seed, .. 189 1 8 Wheat .. 508 0 9 Clover, Hay & Straw 188 10 0 Barley .. 252 12 6 Manure. Chalk. &c. .. 80 2 /1 Potatoes .. 342 18 6 Potatoes .. .. 15 7 0 Hay, &c. .. 230 18 0

Live stock .. .. 114 15 7

11,458 19 10 To Payment for :-

By House Account :—

Labour .. 272 0 10 Oats for Hunter .. 54 18 0 Rent, Tax & Rates 205 14 0 Carting & Leading .. 35 5 0 Tradesmen's Bills .. 246 18 2

3 tons Hay 43 18 -24

0 0

31 tons Straw @ f.5.. 17 0 0

Pony for 34 weeks at 5s. 8 10 0

1140 3 0

To 10 per cent. Interest

on Capital :— On 1500 11.067 To Balance, being net Lr:fit on year's trod- 529 12 10

5 5

11,597 2 10 11.597 2 10

It will be seen that out of what is, after all, a small farm With very poor equipment there was an actual profit of £529. That is excellent from the cultivator's point of ,w; and, what is far more important from the point of View of the nation as a whole, very nearly £1,600 worth of produce came out of the land. Now our pomt

5000

Is that in no way save by the use of the plough, new development in style—:surely the most delightful could these 90 acres have been made to yield that amount of foodstuffs whether for human beings or animals. No doubt the farm in the past year was in many ways very lucky, and no doubt worse weather, worse labour troubles and ill luck at this or that point might very easily have cut down the profits to nothing. The fact remains, however, that if we want the land of this country to yield as much as possible, which undoubtedly we do want, then the plough is the thing. It may not give us so charming and Arcadian a system of country life as the deep green pastures trampled over by the lowing herd, but it is very much better business, both for keeping the people on the land and feeding them from the land. When we say this let no one think we are forgetting our political economy. We believe as much as ever we did that in a peaceful and sensible world it is better for a nation not to grow its own food if it can produce other things cheaper, but to exchange those other things with people who possess a better climate or a better soil or cheaper working conditions for agriculture. Experience has taught us, however, that not merely owing to the war, but owing to the whims of other nations, these exchanges are not always open to us, and that the path of national safety, and therefore in the highest sense also the economic path, is that which leads a nation to produce enough food, we will not say to feed it altogether —that is impossible in this country—but enough to keep it alive with only a moderate amount of help from abroad. It is no doubt true that if we could depend upon our neighbours never to squeeze us, and also upon there being no sudden upheavals in such matters as transport and strikes, constraint of Princes, Republics and Soviets and other difficulties, the way for this island to get rich is to keep to industry and let other people do the agriculture. Unfortunately, we have got to take the world as it is and not as it should be, and we find that for nations, as for individuals, it is better not to rely wholely upon the shop, but to be able to feel that you can get along and keep yourself alive even if you were to be snowed up for a month, or if there were a transport strike which would make buying impossible. Then the individual man—and it is the same for a nation— blesses the day that he has got plenty of hens, plenty of potatoes of his own growing and a granary full of oats and wheat. His living may for a time be primitive, but at any rate he will not starve.