Britain's Amazing Food Plan

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 226, 24 September 1938, Page 3 (Supplement)

Britain's Amazing Food Plan

" T HAVE just seen miracles of * science in a house in a drab London street and on a farm in Hertfordshire which can Solve Britain s greatest problem—an adequate suply of food in time of war, wrote a London pressman in a Sunday journal.

"A place the size of Euston Station could grow enough «orn for all Britain. In vast underground caves, lit by artificial sunlight, corn, vegetables and fruit could be grown.

"Two men have shown me Tiow it can be done—Allan Monkhouse, a New Zealander, and the central figure of the 'Metro 'Sic' trials in' Moscow five years ago, at his small farm at Harpenden, Hertfordshire, and Dr. A. Hitchings Thomas, a pioneer in this science, who grows crops behind curtained windows of a house in the Caledonian Road, London, K".l.

"They both work on similar principles. They are growing fodder for cattle and selling their cabinets to farmers. These cabinets are racked like the inside of a kitchen oven and on each rack is a perforated metal tray. Maize seed is put into the first of these trays and a solution of salts is sprinkled over them. By the end of the first day roots are shooting from the seed, and another tray is introduced. By the second day the plant can be seen growing from the first seed.

"By the eighth day the maize is nine inches high, green and luscious, ready for cattle to eat, while in the other seven "trays the maize is only sprouting, so that each day there is a fresh supply of the fodder.

"Only a moderate heat and the salts solution are needed to cause this six-fold acceleration of Nature. All over Britain farmers are using these cabinets. This leaves their fields, previously devoted <to the growing of root crops, free for the cultivation of other things.

"In time of war this space saving and cheapness; would be of immense value to the country. Food is the chink in our armour of defence. "An official of the Ministry of Agriculture told me that every form of plant life might be grown by this method. Corn, vegetables and fruit could be cultivated on racks in caves." ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ Compulsory "Spring Clean" jgPRIXG cleaning has begun in Dairen, South Manchuria, by order of the police.

Inhabitants of the city are given a few weeks in which to spring clean their houses inside and outside, and at the end of the time the police visit all the houses, sometimes carrying out thorough inspections. If any house does not pass muster, those responsible "lose face."

Pavements are littered with furniture, bedclothes and kitchen utensils, while the owners of the houses, their heads wrapped in white cloths, scrub and polish. In this way Dairen retains its name as one of the cleanest cities in the Far East.