138 THE MURDER OF AGRICULTURE 



there are now but thousands ; give the country a sensible, 

 practical fiscal system ; a system that will lend itself to 

 agricultural needs, among other things, and who shall 

 say that, apart from all party bias and political bunkum, 

 8,500,000 acres cannot be devoted each year to the grow- 

 ing of wheat? 

 Occupying Many well-known authorities on matters agricultural 



Ownerships ■,■,■, • -, 



consider that nothmg like this area would be required 

 if the land were properly tilled under a system of 

 " Occupying Ownerships," that is to say, under a system 

 best calculated to produce the maximum instead of the 

 minimum results from the soil. Good husbandry, such as 

 would inevitably result if the man owned the land he 

 tilled, would produce a minimum yield of five quarters per 

 acre; and instead of 8,500,000 of acres being necessary 

 to produce all the wheat we require for our consumption, 

 7,000,000 would suffice. 



Then we import over 6,000,000 cwts. of bacon. Can 

 any man in his senses affirm that if we grow from 

 7,000,000 to 8,500,000 acres of wheat, with thousands of 

 farmsteads scattered throughout the country, we should 

 lack any one of the required facilities for producing 

 every pound of bacon that we now import in such vast 

 quantities? 



Next we come to cheese, butter, poultry and eggs. 

 Who or what is to stop us producing all these when once 

 the great land industry is permanently established in 

 our midst? 



Once we give back to the people their best heritage — 

 agriculture — put the plough back into the furrow, con- 

 vert our sheep walks into cornfields, our deer forests 



