THE HOME MARKET 295 



require about 9 million acres to be cultivated in 

 wheat. But it might be thought that 9 million acres 

 in wheat would be too large a proportion of the culti- 

 vable land of the kingdom to be used for one article 

 of food ; besides which, no one wishes to stop imports 

 from India and the colonies. The quantities of wheat 

 received from the different sources of supply vary 

 from year to year, and therefore any apportionment 

 of them can be only approximate. But taking the 

 supplies of 1903 as a basis for the calculation, it would 

 require the yield (at 30 bushels the acre) of about 

 7 million acres, in addition to the imports from India 

 and the colonies, to provide bread for all the popula- 

 tion of the United Kingdom for a whole year, and if 

 from any cause all over-sea supplies were stopped, 

 this home produce would be enough for more than 

 nine months' supply. 



Seven million acres out of nearly 48 millions under 

 crops of some kind in the United Kingdom is not 

 an undue proportion, seeing that before i860, without 

 bounties or protection, we had more than 4 million 

 acres so cultivated.-^ Of course, to have 7 million 

 acres every year in wheat would require a much 

 larger acreage set aside for the purpose, as it is not 

 thought at present to be profitable or to be good 

 farming to grow wheat year after year in succession 

 on the same land. But this in itself would be a 

 further advantage to the community, because the 

 extra acreage, whatever it might be, would be under 

 the plough, producing crops of some kind, instead of 

 being kept in grass.^ 



^ McCulloch estimated that the total quantity of wheat grown in the 



United Kingdom in 1846 (seed being allowed for) was 1 5,578,000 quarters. 



'' Good crops of wheal can be grown on the same land for several 



