CHEAP FOOD 39 



which began to increase again when the up- 

 ward tendency of prices was sufficiently 

 estabhshed to give farmers confidence. 



Thus the dechne of cereals is clearly con- 

 nected with the growth of imports, through 

 the effect of the latter on prices. But the 

 imports themselves are the result of agricul- 

 tural expansion in foreign countries, at first 

 in Europe, afterwards in the United States, 

 but more recently in Canada, Australia, and 

 other British possessions. What has hap- 

 pened is that the world has supplied us more 

 and more with cheap food at the expense of 

 home agriculture ; but while we became less 

 and less self-supporting during the second half 

 of the last century a change has now set in, 

 and the Empire, though not Great Britain, is 

 becoming more self-supporting. The imports 

 of wheat and flour from foreign countries fell, 

 in round figures, from 85 million cwts. in 1907 

 to 64 million cwts. in 1911, while those from 

 British lands rose from 43- to 58 milhon cwts. 

 The following official statement of the pro- 

 portions of wheat and flour supplied for 

 consumption in the United Kingdom in 1912 

 from the three sources was recently given in 

 the House of Commons : Home-grown, 20.1 

 per cent. ; Colonial-grown 42.3 per cent. ; 

 foreign-grown, 37.6 per cent. 



