tillage land rather than to attempt to increase its area in the face of the general opposition of the agricultural community. Labour Supply. Turning now to the means by which this in- creased production was realized in war-time, the prime difficulty experienced was the lack of labour. Grass land had often been described as a reserve of fertility that in case of need could be converted into crops, but this view had ignored the facts that laying down to grass is accompanied by the permanent loss of men and horses, implements and even buildings. When the need comes tillage cannot be resumed at pleasure; the men and machinery are no longer there. In Jan. 1917, when the food production campaign began, the 800,000 men employed in agri- culture in 1914 had fallen to 562,000, and as about 180,000 of these were of military age and fresh drafts were urgently needed for the army, some new sources of labour had to be tapped. The operations of voluntary recruiting, and the action of local tribu- nals in granting exemptions, had produced very unequal results; the eastern and home counties, for example, had parted with a much larger proportion of their men to the colours. For a time in 1917 the calling-up of men from farms was suspended, but the spring offensive of 1918 resulted in a fresh call for 30,000 Grade i men from agriculture, 22,600 being actually called up. Meantime, however, the War Office rendered great assistance by the release of men on home service for short periods when the call for labour was greatest. In the spring of 1917, 21,000 ploughmen were lent for two months, together with about an equal number of other men with some experience of the land or of horses, and these men did much to render possible the first increase of tillage land. Though 18,000 of these men in Category A had to be returned to the army in May 1917, almost an equal number of men on home service were released for the harvest of that year. Other men were furnished by the military authorities during the autumn and winter, until in the spring of 1918 there were about 62,000 men working upon the land though nominally engaged on military service.
Assistance was also obtained from enemy prisoners-of-war. Early in 1918 prisoners at work in France', who were skilled ploughmen and had other agricultural experience, were brought across and established in camps of from 25 to 40 for work upon farms throughout England. The first prejudice against the employment of these men was soon dissipated as their skill and willingness to work became apparent, and eventually a certain number were even allowed to be housed upon farms without guards. As a rule these men were employed upon the Depart- ment's ploughing contracts or drainage operations, or other work that would absorb a gang of men and minimize the number of guards required. In the great majority of cases the German prisoners did excellent work and even came to be preferred by farmers to the local labour that had been left to them. Nor did any trouble arise over discipline; the tale is told of the guard who was brought back to camp helplessly drunk, supported by two of his prisoners, with a third carrying his rifle.
Various attempts were made to recruit civilian labour perma- nently and for special harvesting operations, but with little success. The only valuable recruits that were obtained were the public- school boys, some 4,500 to 5,000 of whom were formed into camps for the harvest and did service that was much appreciated, and again the camps of Boy Scouts, who in their turn did first-rate work for the farmers with whom their camp was placed. A certain number of " conscientious objectors " were told off for agricultural work, but the feeling against them in most rural districts was too strong to permit of their employment, and such of them as were engaged in camps proved of little use.
The greatest part of the accessory labour required in order to carry out the agricultural programme of 1917 and 1918, was provided by women. The supply was organized by the Women's War Agricultural Committee in the counties and by the Women's Branch of the Food Production Department. In the first place the employment for part or whole time of the women resident in the villages, who, in England at any rate, had largely ceased to work on the land, was revived, with the result that over a quarter of a million were at work in 1918 as compared with less
than 100,000 before the war. Some assistance was given to these workers by the supply f boots and other outfit for farm work. Considerable camps were also formed of college students for temporary labour in the harvests of 1917 and 1918, and these women did excellent service in flax-pulling and other seasonal operations. But the chief effort was to provide a mobile force of women's labour from sources that did not usually furnish land workers, and at the beginning of 1917 the Women's Land Army was organized. The recruits were very carefully examined for fitness; indeed, something like 75 % of the first 47,000 who volun- teered were rejected, though by 1918 a considerable improve- ment in the material coming forward became manifest. Most of the women had to be trained, even if only for a few weeks, and in addition to the facilities provided by certain agricultural colleges and farm schools, over 600 special training centres were established. A minimum wage was laid down, at first i8s. and later 205. a week, and in addition an outfit of the necessary clothes was provided. Depots had also to be established where the women who were waiting for employment or temporarily unengaged could be housed, and the women were eventually distributed between farm work, the Forage Department of the War Office and the Timber Supply Department.
At first considerable prejudice had to be overcome on the part of farmers, and again great difficulties were experienced in assuring proper accommodation for the women on the farms, but by the winter of 1917-8 some 7,000 were at work, and the number in- creased to 16,000 in the harvest of 1918, until the workmanlike costume of the landswomen, with their breeches and smock, became a familiar feature of all country life in England and Wales. On the whole these women proved of most service as milkers and in charge of stock and horses, for which many of them showed a special aptitude. Others again developed into very efficient drivers of motor tractors.
After the war and the return of the agricultural labourers on service, the demand for whole-time women's labour to a large extent disappeared. Moreover, a large proportion of the lands- women, especially the educated women, had taken on this kind of work for patriotic reasons, and had no call to the life of an agricultural labourer, so that the Women's Land Army was disbanded in 1919 and very few of the workers so recruited remained in 1921 upon the land. Undoubtedly, however, a certain number of women whose circumstances permitted were led to take up farming as a profession, and the whole movement, over and above the indispensable work it actually accomplished at a critical time, led to the diffusion through the community of a much better understanding of agriculture and rural life.
Tractors. After labour, the provision of implements and especially of tractors proved the main difficulty of the Food Production Department. At the outset, in the early spring of 1917, with the immense urgency of getting land ploughed forth- with for the harvest of that year, it was necessary to buy every and any tractor available. Something under 500 were at work in three months, together with about an equal number of privately owned tractors which were controlled by the Department in order to get a maximum of work out of them. The Department engaged the ploughmen and operated the tractors, a charge being made to the farmers of 155. to 205. per acre for ploughing and half that rate for cultivating. Naturally the service did not pay its way; many of the tractors were far from efficient, and with the limited training that had been possible the drivers were at first unable to get a good average acreage worked per day. As experience of the various types of tractors accumulated it was decided to concentrate the main effort on the production of the Ford tractor, the specifications of which were placed by Henry Ford at the disposal of the Government. It was found possible neither to manufacture any of the British types nor to undertake the production of the Ford tractor in England, so entirely had British engineering works been turned over to the output of war material. Instead, orders were placed with Mr. Ford, and delivery began early in 1918. By the end of the year the Department was operating 4,200 tractors, despite the with- drawal of the large numbers of earlier types, and a further 3,000
