“and brought forth fruit an hundredfold”

Abstract

ARTIFICIAL fertilisers and the breeding of new varieties of plants constitute the two really spectacular achievements of scientific agriculture, for by augmenting production they have contributed materially to human welfare. “Too materially,” says the sceptic; “we have far more wheat, barley, sugar, etc., than we can consume.” Such a view, however, ignores the fact that about two-thirds of mankind, residing in the Far East and Russia, ‘enjoy’ a very low standard of living compared with that of most western peoples, and that China alone is said to lose several millions of population every year from starvation, direct or indirect. From the world point of view, Malthus has been right: population has tended to outstrip food supplies; but whether this tendency will persist depends upon many factors—for example, how the use of fertilisers, improved organisation of resources, transport, and distribution will affect supply, and how movements of population, the practice of birth-control, and pursuit of a high material standard of living will influence demand.

Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. Bulletin No. 28: Artificial Fertilizers in Modern Agriculture.

By Sir E. J. Russell. Pp. viii + 202. (London: H.M. Stationery Office, 1931.) 3s. net.