Not for publication

I am sending this personal letter to every farmer because we are facing the most serious situation in our history. To many of you the war may seem remote and you may fnd it difficult to realise that things which are happening hundreds and even thousands of miles away constitute an immediate danger to you. It is nevertheless true - your farms, your homes, all that we hold dear and worth while are in serious danger. Great though your efforts have been I have no other option but to call upon you for still greater efforts during the next twelve months, indeed for your last ounce of strength and determination.

Within a few months of the outbreak of war you were warned that the supply of imported feeding stuffs would be increasingly difficult and that we must all of us grow sufficient feeding stuffs for our own stock. This last winter your purchased feeding stuffs have consisted, with the exception of a small reserve of maize, almost entirely of milling offals (pollard and bran) and oil cakes. What I must now tell you is that you can no longer count on thses. You must prepare for the coming winter, knowing that you may have nothing to feed your stock but what you have grown for them.

To reduce your stock is not a solution - that is merely admitting defeat. It is essential that every possible gallon of milk should be produced, especially during the coming winter. The farmer who sells his cows and goes out of milk production whatever the reason, is a farmer who has been beaten by the enemy.

The area under crops cannot be increased this year but each one of you can add to your supply of feeding stuffs for your stock next winter by increasing the production of grass and making grass silage. Every farmer in Northern Ireland with stock to feed should, indeed must, have grass silage on his farm next winter. As soon as you have got your crops in get hold of your Area Tillage Officer and follow his advice in the treatment of your grassland and the making of silage.

To those of you who are growing flax or early potatoes, I give this advice. Sow Italian ryegrass in August. It will give you winter keep till March when the land is ploughed for a spring crop.

I have for obvious reasons, marked this letter "Not for publication" The position is serious. There can be no faltering despite the troubles you are experiencing and the greater ones to come. I have no alternative but to call on you for a still greater effort - a call which you must answer both in the national and your own interest.

Your tasks are (1) produce more milk than you have ever produced before ; (2) feed all your stock on the produce of your own farm.

Yours sincerely