Chapt. xxvi. T/e Neglected Food Farm. 377 



it shall be accepted in its entirety without any reservation, and I 



shall base my calculations upon it as closely as I can. I have not 

 quoted piecemeal to suit my own argument, but exactly as the 

 passage stands. 



L3. Her.- we have broadly the conclusion that certain favour- 

 able acres of sea bottom, though wholly unfilled, onmanured, 

 unprotected by man, but habitually despoiled by every contrivance 

 that skill and wealth can bring t" hear on them, and that for years 

 and years past, still continue to yield an inexhaustible annual crop 

 of food fifty-two times as heavy as good land carefully tilled can he 

 made to hear — still continue to yield fifty-two tons of food per acre 

 per annum. 



14. It has been objected here that it requires to he known what 

 proportion of the sea bottom these favourable acres constitute. I 

 reply that it is not known even in English, much less in less-fished 

 Indian seas. In England fresh localities are constantly being dis- 

 covered. A sandy bottomed shallow is the general desideratum, 

 and it will be seen from the liberal reductions made below that I 

 have confined my calculations as far as possible to such localities 

 (para. 35). It will be seen, also (para. 52), that while advancing 

 this calculation as not unworthy of thought, I am still content 

 myself to rely definitely for the strength of my position on the very 

 much lower and, I conceive, unchallengeable calculation of 332,683 

 tons of fish per annum, an amount of life preserving food equal to 

 the support of three and a half millions of men for a year. And 

 when all is done I have further shown (paras. 56 and 57) that I 

 have used figures, as I have used parallels, only to draw exact 

 attention, to gain a definite working belief in the real magnitude of 

 the neglected food farm at our doors. If in the end that broad fact 

 is heartily conceded as a great reality, then it matters little what 

 minor deductions several thinkers may make at ditlerentplac.es. 



1 5. The one night's special fishing above recorded gives a 

 produce of one ox or six slice]) per acre per diem. Where is the 

 acre of land that could yield the same ? If calculated for the year, 

 omitting Sundays, it would show 106 tons per acre per annum. 

 Neither is it bo extravagant as it would seem to extend the daily 

 catch over the year by a multiple of days, [or the weight of evidence 

 is in favour of trawling not being exhaustive, but rather the reverse, 

 improving the fish by stirring up the insect life at the bottom, and, 



