ABSTRACT
In seeking to understand the role of agriculture and forestry in the planning of the countryside in the second half of the twentieth century, there is a temptation to hark back to the situation at the end of the Great War to find useful comparisons. On the surface the parallel appears clear: a rural economy which had suffered a generation of economic depression to be followed by the crisis, and opportunity, of a continental war where increased home food production became paramount. And to match this, there was a set of government promises regarding full support for farmers and landowners, enacted in the desperation of wartime to boost production, but apparently to be continued after victory.
