194 LAND REFORM 



value of land In France, and gives particulars of the 

 rapid increase in stock, horses, etc. He makes some 

 noteworthy comparisons between the corn growth of 

 France and that of the United Kingdom. 



At the time he wrote (1877) ^y^- million acres, or 

 more than one-fourth (nearly three-tenths) of the 

 whole area of France, were sown with corn of one 

 sort or another. In the corresponding year the land 

 sown with corn of all kinds in Great Britain and 

 Ireland was 1 1 million acres, or one-seventh of the 

 whole area of the United Kingdom. In that year 

 there were 23I- million acres, or above one-sixth of 

 the whole territory of France, sown with wheat and 

 rye, which are articles wholly available for human food. 

 In the United Kingdom there were, in the same year, 

 only 3,600,000 acres, or about one-twenty-second part 

 of the whole area, sown with wheat and rye. To com- 

 pare the figures given by Mr. Richardson with those 

 recently given by the Board of Agriculture, is to bring 

 vividly home to us hov/ rapidly, as a nation, we are 

 losing the power to feed ourselves. 



According to the French statistics last issued by 

 the Board of Agriculture, there were in France, in 

 1 90 1, above 35 million acres, or considerably more 

 than one-fourth of the whole country, under corn 

 crops of one sort or another, while in the United 

 Kingdom the acreage under similar crops, in the same 

 year, had fallen to less than 8J- million, or about one- 

 ninth of the whole country. Taking wheat and rye 

 alone (as being human food), the area in France under 

 these crops in 1901 was 20] million acres, or just under 

 one-sixth of the whole country, while in the United 

 Kingdom in the same year the acreage under these 



