52 THE FUTURE OF OUR AGRICULTURE. 



of foreign foodstuffs. For, as we have seen, German 

 Agriculture is still painfully dependent upon them, and 

 nothing has hit her so sorely as our blockade. In the 

 words of the Times of August 3, 191 6, " had the Central 

 Powers been forced to rely strictly upon their own resources 

 during the last year, there is a great probability that they 

 would have known starvation before this time." They 

 were very keen upon seizing the grain stores of Roumania. 



And what has Protection done for France ? It is in full 

 swing there. There is a duty upon wheat which, for its 

 heaviness, the late Paul Leroy Beaulieu — not by any means 

 a Free Trader, as his Traite d'Economie Politique testifies 

 — condemns as insense. But that has not brought about 

 a wheat growing self-sufficiency of the country. No more 

 has it added to the number of believers in its doctrine. By 

 its actual results it has set those who had first chosen it 

 as their serving policy, against itself, as appears from what 

 Miss Spedding writes in her very interesting article on 

 " The Rural Prosperity of France," which appeared in the 

 Quarterly Review of April, 1917. " With regard to the part 

 which Protection has played in the agricultural prosperity 

 of France," so she says, " undoubtedly it helped to keep 

 her poorer soil under cultivation during the latter half of 

 the nineteenth century. To-day it is an open question 

 whether it is any longer a benefit. Owing to the great 

 improvement of agricultural methods during the last 

 fifteen years many people in France are now of opinion that 

 the protective tariff is retarding progress by making it 

 unnecessary for farmers to obtain the highest yield from 

 the soil." 



That agrees thoroughly with what Mr. Prothero writes 

 about our Agriculture in the bygone time of Protection. 

 " Prosperous years had brought wealth to slovens, and 

 sluggards had amassed riches in their sleep." 



And how, in France, has Protection affected the yield, 

 the improvement of which we are most anxious to bring 

 about and for the effecting of which we are actually recom- 

 mended Protection ? The yield per acre is less than in 

 this country, less by a good deal than in equally Free Trade 



