50 FIELDS, FACTORIES AND WORKSHOPS. 



duce with the least amount of labour, Britain undoubtedly 

 took the lead until she was superseded by America. 

 Again, as regards the fine breeds of cattle, the splendid 

 state of the meadows and the results obtained in separate 

 farms, there is much to be learned from Britain. But 

 a closer acquaintance with British agriculture as a whole 

 discloses many features of inferiority. However splen- 

 did, a meadow remains a meadow, much inferior in 

 productivity to a cornfield ; and the fine breeds of cattle 

 appear to be poor creatures as long as each ox requires 

 three acres of land to be fed upon. Certainly one may 

 indulge in some admiration at the average twenty-eight 

 bushels grown in this country ; but when we learn that 

 only 1,417,000 acres, out of the cultivable 33,000,000, 

 bear such crops, we are quite disappointed. Any one 

 could obtain like results if he were to put all his manure 

 into one-twentieth part of the area which he possesses. 

 Again, the twenty-eight bushels no longer appear to 

 us so satisfactory when we learn that without any man- 

 uring, merely by means of a good culture, they have 

 obtained at Rothamstead an average of fourteen bushels 

 per acre from the same plot of land for forty consecutive 

 years ; * while with manuring they obtain thirty-eight 

 bushels instead of twenty-eight, and under the allotment 

 system the crops reach forty bushels. In some farms 

 they occasionally attain even fifty and fifty-seven 

 bushels per acre. 



If we intend to have a correct appreciation of British 

 agriculture, we must not base it upon what is obtained 

 on a few selected and well-manured plots ; we must 

 inquire what is done with the territory, taken as a 

 whole. t Now, out of each 1000 acres of the aggregate 



* The Rothamstead Experiments, 1888, by Professor W. Fream, p 35 seq, 

 f The figures which I take for these calculations are given in the 

 Statesman's Year-book, 1896, and the Agricultural Returns of the Board 

 of Agriculture for 1895. 

 They are as follows: 



Acres. 

 Total area (Great Britain) 56,457,500 



