INTENSE CULTIVATION.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 May 1917, Page 5

INTENSE CULTIVATION.

TO BEAT SUBMARINE MENACE. San Francisco, March 13. An American correspondent stationed in London for one of the New York journals, has had an interesting interview with Sir Arthur Lee, the Director-Gen-eral of Food Production of Great Britain, a new department, which is the outgrowth of Germany's submarine campaign, aiming at the enlistment of several hundred thousand civilians to cultivate every available bit of soil. In the course of his remarks, Sir Arthur said: "We want 2000 American tractor ploughs for the use of a civilian army of night ploughers, which we ar>) about to enlist through the British Isles. We .hope to make the tractor ploughs fill the gaps caused by the Shortage in labor. For this reason we are going to import as many as we can from America. We are going to equip them with headlights for night ploughing. "Laborers can only work eight hours but tractors can work twenty-four. They will be driven by taj'i-eab drivers and chauffeurs, who will he able* to learn their mechanism in a few hours. Behind every plough will be a skilled farmer. They will be assisted by prisoners, conscientious / objectors, members of the Home Defence Forces, and women.

"In thia way we hope to produce enough food to make us independent of outside help as long as the war lasts. We do not believe we will be able to produce sufficient crops to feed the population in time of pence, but are confident we will be able to grow enough to stave off starvation during the war For this we thank the German .submarines. They already have given England an agricultural policy which is destined to make us to a large extent self-sup-, porting." A later dispatch states that it is proposed to utilise electricity at night to promote acceleration of growth of agricultural produce. This latter announcement has excited some curiosity in America, but Luther Burbank, known as the "Plant Wizard," interviewed at his experimental gardens in Santa Rosa, California, said the new departure of th'j British Government was quite feasible-, especially for onions, lettuce, and ntdises. He was, however, doubtful a-i to the practicability of the scheme for other kinds of field produce, as enormous amounts of electricity would have to be requisitioned for the work, and would make the scheme prohibitive in that respect.