Three years ago the whole country suddenly ran out of
plough- shares and the autumn sowing was held up. This year Whitehall has organised, or anyhow failed to avert, a sack famine. Tho Farmer and Stockbreeder pointed out some time ago that there ought to be 5,000,000 more sacks in circulation, and the Ministry of Agriculture issued 3,000,000. But now all the mills have closed- simultaneously—for their annual fortnight's holiday. The increased use of combines means that a high proportion of the available sacks have already been filled and are either at or waiting to go to the mills, from which, meanwhile, no sacks will emerge till the holidays are over. Farmers, like other rugged individualists, are often accused of being unduly intolerant of planning. I don't know whether this criticism is just or not, but I do know that they don't like bad planning.
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