 of the year for Europe to feed a well over 200 millions of us already to be clothed and sheltered and above all fed. Increasing quantities of food we need to feed are still growing numbers. To judge from the marketplaces stacked with the harvest of our European soil there would seem to be no problem. Shouldn't plentiful it looks. The three cattle changing hands at shows and sales. But in fact there's not nearly enough to feed us as we are today. Let alone to provide for our constantly increasing numbers. For many years now our drive and energy have gone into the towns, into industry and manufacture. For nearly a century we've preferred to buy our food from other continents with the goods we've made at home. But nowadays food grown anywhere is costly and we simply cannot make enough goods to purchase all we need. The truth is that we Europeans must turn our eyes once more to the land we have tended to forget. World can no longer feed us as it once did. We must grow more food ourselves. By every means within our pie we must bring the dead land back into good heart. By every means increase the yield of the soil that's bearing now. Every means increase the yield. There they're doing it in Holland with their great schemes of reclamation in the Zydezee. They're creating new land. First building up protective dikes around the area to be drained then pumping out the water. Once this was under the sea now it's good Dutch earth. But we cannot hope for much new land in this crowded continent of ours. We must seek to make better use of the land we have already. In the fields and farms of Europe stretching from the fjords of Norway to the Gulf of Athens there are men whose progressive attitude toward the soil is unaccepted whose methods are unequaled anywhere for productive skill. The cooperatives of Denmark with their spotless deities equipped with every machine technology can often act as to the acre than any country in the world. But all too often even now the land is tilled like this by methods that have changed but little in a thousand years. Every side the research stations speak of scientific help available to the farmer. On every hand there is expert knowledge and advice to be had in many countries for the ask. But still across so much of Europe scientist and farmer do not know each other yet. Certainly the barriers of climate and geography hold up the spread of knowledge. But perhaps a deeper reason lies in the very closeness of the European farmer to his land. When you work the soil for generations on your own you reckon you know a thing or two yourself. Change is a matter of time. But time in Europe now is vital. Six new mouths to feed every single minute. In Paris 17 nations are tackling the urgent question of how to bring the scientist and the farmer together to grow more food. Jointly they're working out a plan to bring all European agriculture up to the standards of the best. The additional supply is by larger imports. They may even decrease. There is therefore the danger of a serious situation leading to inflation. We are in complete accord with the program for increasing food production in Europe. The ECA is most anxious to make available to our European neighbors all the knowledge we have found to be successful in increasing food production in America. International meetings are most useful. But the great task is to bring this information right down to the farmer's doorstep. That is the first point of the plan to meet the farmer on his own ground. To bring him more intimate and friendly help. To interpret for him the findings of science in the daily terms of yard and field. In getting more production it's often speed that counts. That's the next point of the plan. Make machines do the work. Tractors cost money but many governments are making it easier for farmers to buy them by means of subsidies and credits. This French farmer has worked with horses all his life. The change comes hard at first but he's made up his mind to take the plunge. Of course it takes a bit of getting used to and sometimes new ideas are not accepted as quickly as this. Well perhaps the gentleman's right. So in the end this Italian farmer agrees to plant a new kind of maize. In southern Europe maize is the staff of life. It's food for human beings and for animals. If the crop is poor other cereals must be purchased from abroad usually with dollars. Better seed yields bigger crops. And throughout the Mediterranean area agricultural advisors are persuading farmers to try a new hybrid maize developed by American scientists. The seed has been introduced to Europe under martial aid and where it's been planted it's produced a crop nearly twice as large as before. Better seed yields bigger crops. That's fundamental to Europe's plan for more homegrown food. It's especially true of grass and better grass means more meat and milk from the pastures more wool from the flocks on the hills. Here the scientists of Holland and Britain have led the way. They have developed strains that will provide richer grazing for the cattle and at the same time fertilize the soil itself. If the graziers of other European countries follow suit it will be less difficult to feed those extra maize. But we must remember the production that we get from this type of land over the whole season and not only during the winter. And I'm quite convinced by plowing and reseeding the more amenable portions of these slopes definitely increase that production. By every means increase the yield. And in some parts of Europe the drive to grow more food is bringing change to the very structure of society. In southern Italy our farmers have never had farms of their own and the land has been like this neglected since anyone can remember. If these dead have were brought back to life and if they work it had the pride of owning it things might be very different. On this land the clash of arms has sounded down the passing years. The Byzantines and the Saracens have fought upon it. Invading Spaniards of the Knights of Normandy have trodden it. Since then Europe has multiplied her peaceful millions and now the disinherited of Europe come to claim it as their own. To plant and grow and harvest. It has slumbered through the centuries this Calabrian land. But now times are changing. The old owners are being bought out. And the town cry spell is calling everyone together to hear important news. From now on the land is to belong to those who work it to them. There are to be ten acres for each of them it says. And the government will hold a meeting in the towns and villages to draw lots for the land. That's it. That's their land. The technology they govern the government engineers are pretty well remaking it. This plowing irrigating manuring to give them a good start when the lots are drove. Such a vision the farmers part is vital. Two hundred million miles and more depend on him. In his hands he holds the fulfillment of our grand design. This has been a presentation of the Library of Congress. Visit us at loc.gov.