Help for Farmers; No Stone Left Unturned

This chapter shows the stark contrast between previous systems based on voluntarism, to compulsion to provide for the army and for the Home Front. The changing sources of manpowerManpower for agriculture during the last two years of the war attempted to help farmersFarmershelp for under pressure to feed the nation, but many substitutes were unknown to farmers and of variable quality. From December 1916 the necessity for government to increase manpowerManpower planning strategies is seen as war progressed, while the needs for army recruitment competed with industries at home producing vital war materials and increasing home food production. The response by government to nationalise farming from December 1916 was to decentralise decision making to county and district levels and compel farmers to plough their land and plant crops. The success of various schemes to replace traditional farm labour is analysed with the help they contributed to feeding the population during 1917 and 1918. This gives the further social and political background to why the police were released into agriculture and the help they gave.