298 LAND REFORM 



of the Tendring Farmers' Club, Essex, which showed 

 that during eighteen years (i 885-1 902) there had been 

 an average loss of ^1,677, 139 per annum through im- 

 porting flour instead of its equivalent in wheat. 



Besides these items, there is the question of employ- 

 ment to be considered. These 7 millions of acres 

 brought under wheat cultivation would provide em- 

 ployment for at least 175,000 men, who, with their 

 wives and children, would number at the lowest half 

 a million of persons, all fixed on the soil, and living 

 by means of employment on it.^ Besides this, if 

 Mr. Chamberlain's proposal to levy the small duty of 

 2s. per quarter on foreign wheat and 5 per cent on 

 other imported food were adopted, not as " protection," 

 but as a toll levied on the foreigner for the use of our 

 markets, the sum so realized, no matter how applied, 



^ This is adopting the Duke of Bedford's opinion that five men are 

 required for every 200 acres in wheat more than are wanted for the same 

 area in grass; but it is certain that this estimate is far too low. Mr. 

 Alfred Mansell, than whom there is no better authority, stated in a paper 

 read before the United Service Institution (1903), that to cultivate an 

 extra 2,218,493 acres of wheat would give employment to 150,000 extra 

 labourers. This is about fourteen men to each 200 acres instead of the 

 five that I have given, or a total of about 490,000 labourers (instead of 

 175,000) required for the 7 million acres named. I wrote to Mr. Mansell 

 to ask if he had not overstated the number, and the following is his 

 reply: "I do not think, after giving the matter careful thought, that I 

 have overstated my case. The actual growing of this acreage of wheat 

 would not in itself give work to so many extra labourers, but to grow 

 this extra acreage of wheat a great deal more land than is actually 

 occupied annually by this cereal would have to come into cultivation, as 

 in the ordinary economy of the farm wheat could not be grown without 

 an increase in roots and other green crops. It would also necessitate 

 that a much larger acreage should be devoted to temporary pastures. 

 This would all mean a good deal of extra labour." According to Mr. 

 Mansell's calculation the cultivation of 7 million acres in wheat would 

 give employment to about 420,000 labourers. These and their wives 

 and families would number about i^ million persons all living on the 

 soil. 



