12 WAGES AND EMPIRE 



problem of the number of these plants that he can set 

 out. 



The question is one entirely of the capacity of the 

 plant on the one hand, and of the strength of the human 

 being to set them out on the other. It was found for 

 a long time that a family working hard ceaselessly 

 could be tolerably well supplied with sustenance by 

 means of these plants. And there for a long time 

 the matter remained, until with the ushering in of 

 the modern scientific era a new light was shed on the 

 subject. It was seen that the amount of food which a 

 man could make by use of the plants was not constant 

 in amount, as it had hitherto been thought to be, but 

 that it was susceptible of being increased, so that a 

 famil}^ need not have to work so hard to obtain its 

 subsistence and might yet obtain a better living. And 

 along these lines the tendency is for work to be 

 shortened and the product to be magnified. It is well 

 to see the principles by which this comes about, because 

 it is in them, and in them only, that the hopes of labour 

 lie for a shortening of their hours of work and an 

 increase in their living. 



The principles which enable human production 

 through the plant to be increased are two : firstly, the 

 yield of the plant can be increased, so that the same 

 amount of work on a man's part will produce more 

 food ; and secondly, human power can be increased so 

 that the same amount of effort exerted by a man will 

 produce more work. This enables a man with the 

 same expenditure of energy to set out more plants, so 

 that besides getting a greater yield from each plant he 

 can have more plants than before to give this increased 

 yield. 



It is as well to note the facts upon which these two 

 principles depend. 



How ihc yield of the plant is increased. — The occasion 

 for the plant to synthesise more food arises, of course, 



