PLOUGHING BY NIGHT

Waikato Times, Volume 88, Issue 13462, 17 April 1917, Page 7

PLOUGHING BY NIGHT

SPEEDING UP BRITISH CULTIVA-

TION

"We want 2,000 American tractor ploughs for the use of a civilian army of night ploughers which we are about to enlist throughout the British Isles," said Sir Arthur Lee, Director-General of Food Production, to the Associated Press.

This new department, which is the outgrowth of Germany's submarine campaign, aims at the enlistment of several hundred thousand civilians to cultivate every available bit of soil. "We hope to make the tractor ploughs fill the gaps caused by the shortage of labour," continued Sir Arthur. "For this reason we are going to import 2000, or as many as we can, from America. We are going to equip them with headlights for night ploughing. Labourers can work on for eight hours, but tractors can work 24 hours. They will be driven by taxicab drivers and chauffeurs, who will be 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 this 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 to feed the population in time of peace, 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 the agricultural policy which" is destined to make us to a large extent self-supporting. The submarines also have revived rural life, giving the farmers a minimum wage and generally making our national defence more effective than a thousand speeches in Parliament."