44 FIELDS, FACTORIES AND WORKSHOPS 



of a bushel per head could account for the change. 

 In the years 1853-60 the soil of Britain nourished one 

 inhabitant on every two acres cultivated : why did it 

 require three acres in order to nourish the same inhabit- 

 ant in 1887? The answer is plain: merely and simply 

 because agriculture had fallen into neglect. 



In fact, the area under wheat had been reduced 

 since 1853-60 by full 1,590,000 acres, and therefore 

 the average crop of the years 1883-86 was below the 

 average crop of 1853-60 by more than 40,000,000 

 bushels ; and this deficit alone represented the food of 

 more than 7,000,000 inhabitants. At the same time 

 the area under barley, oats, beans, and other spring 

 crops had also been reduced by a further 560,000 acres, 

 which, at the low average of thirty bushels per acre, 

 would have represented the cereals necessary to com- 

 plete the above for the same 7,000,000 inhabitants. 

 And it could be said that if the United Kingdom 

 imported cereals for 17,000,000 inhabitants in 1887, 

 instead of for 10,000,000 in 1860, it was simply because 

 more than 2,000,000 acres had gone out of cultivation.* 

 These facts are well known ; but usually they are met 

 with the remark that the character of agriculture had 

 been altered : that instead of growing wheat, meat and 

 milk were produced in this country. However, the 

 figures for 1887, compared with the figures for 1860, 

 show that the same downward movement also took place 

 under the heads of green crops and the like. The area 

 under potatoes was reduced by 280,000 acres; under 

 turnips by 180,000 acres; and although there was an 



Average area under wheat in 1853-60, 4,092,160 acres; average 

 crop, 14,310,779 quarters. Average area under wheat in 1884-87, 

 2,509,055 acres; average crop (good years), 9,198,956 quarters. See 

 Professor W. Fream's Rothatnstead Experiments (London, 1888), page 

 83. I take in the above Sir John Lawes' figure of 5-65 bushels per head 

 of population every year. It is very close to the yearly allowance oi 

 5-67 bushels of the French statisticians. The Russian statisticians 

 reckon 5-67 bushels of winter crops (chiefly rye) and 2'5 bushels of spring 

 crops (sarrazin, barley, etc.). 



