Outlook on Agriculture

From their personal experience the writers of this illuminating and cathartic record have briefly covered a period of unexampled change in British agriculture. The story is passing into history. It is well to be reminded how exiguous was the use of mineral fertilizer before the second world war; how use has increased and spread; and how imperative still, in the interest of agronomic efficiency, is the continued need for scientific guidance.

In the potato plant there is competition for assimilates between foliage and tubers, and the balance can swing in one direction or the other depending on the treatments received. Skill in crop husbandry has found ways by which the crop can be manipulated towards higher returns. Growth analysis studies have now provided some understanding of the factors involved, better knowledge of which could lead to greater control over crop yields.

In Europe, as in Russia and the U.S.A., economic agricultural production is becoming centred more and more on large farms; in developing countries the basic family holding is usually a small plot. A 300-acre intensive dairy farm, with integrated crops and pastures, has been carefully costed over several years, and shows one way in which groups of African workers, under guidance and with specialist advice, can begin to help themselves.

After discovery comes evaluation, and then consolidation—time-consuming phases of research that must be completed before any new product or new method can be put to effective, safe and reliable use. The present review of applications of the bipyridylium herbicides is not exhaustive—selected topics will be dealt with later—but is presented to show the way in which the special properties of these chemicals are being turned to advantage.

Vegetables and soft fruit provide the best financial return from irrigation. Supplementary watering is today almost essential for successful market gardening. Among farm crops, potatoes give the most profitable response. Irrigation of grass, which is widely practised and accounts for about 30 per cent of the total watered land in Britain, is seen as a late stage in intensification—for profitable use when other factors are fully exploited.

The greater part of the world's food is obtained at present, directly or indirectly, from the grasses and plants closely related to them. Classification of the various members of the group serves to underline the many changes that have brought them to their present state—changes that have ensured adaptability to diverse, even extreme, terrestrial conditions. Such plasticity may well be manipulated, and turned to economic advantage.