Sugar Beet and Beet Sugar

Abstract

DURING the War it was realised in Great Britain that there can be great danger in complete dependence upon imported food supplies. When, therefore, the crisis of the enemy submarine campaign was over, increased consideration was given to British agriculture, and the possibilities for home food production. The position of the farmer with regard to the rest of the nation was seen to be one of the greatest importance, and in many schemes of reconstruction emphasis was laid upon the national requirement of a large area of land to be maintained in a highly productive condition. With the passing of the years, however, memories of crises have become blunted, and there is now a tendency to revert to what seems to be the normal view of agriculture and home food production. The farmer appears once more as an individual whose production and trading must depend for success upon the chances of markets which are open to the goods of the whole world, and not upon a point of national necessity. The value of home produce is measured by the usual standard of free markets, and the great weight of the fear of hunger in a time of war diminishes in the balances of opinion.

Sugar Beet and Beet Sugar.

By R. N. Dowling. Pp. x + 277 + 24 plates. (London: Ernest Benn, Ltd., 1928.) 15s. net.