OCCUPYING OWNERSHIP 195 



two cereals had fallen to 1,813,907 acres, or about one 

 forty-third part of the whole area. 



The exact proportions for that year (1901) were : — 



France. United Kingdom. 



Total Area^ . . 130,765,000 ... 77,682,516 acres. 



Corn Crops of all kinds 35,111,247 ... 8,476,876 acres. 



Wheat and Rye . . 20,268,610 ... 1,813,907 acres. 



It thus appears that while France, so far as cereals 

 are concerned, is practically a self-feeding country, the 

 British nation has become absolutely dependent on 

 other countries for this kind of food. 



Turning to "■ la petite cicltMre" — small cultivation — 

 we find the same results. The intensive cultivation, 

 enterprise, and economy always allied to a peasant 

 proprietary have enabled France — after supplying her 

 own tables — to export to this country enormous and 

 ever-increasing quantities of the smaller articles of 

 food scheduled on a previous page. As regards her 

 home consumption, foods which are comparative 

 luxuries with the mass of the people of this country 

 form, on account of their cheapness, the ordinary 

 fare of the people of France. Mr. Richardson on 

 this head remarks : " Hardly a meal is ever eaten 

 in France at any table above the very poorest with- 

 out eggs and poultry forming part," and as to milk, 

 after referring to its sale as a source of steady weekly 

 income, he says : " Milk will always be of great im- 

 portance in French farming ; it is an article whose 

 benefit makes itself felt daily and weekly ; the daily 



1 Mr. Richardson gives as the whole area of France, 132,000,000 acres ; 

 the Board of Trade, 1 30,765,000 acres. The value of the cereals of all 

 kinds imported into France in the year 1904 was only ^4,432,000. 

 Consular Reports, "Trade with France," 2682-35 (•905)- 



