76 THE LAND AND ITS PROBLEMS 



alone of the main arable crops show a certain increase. 

 In Germany the increase in cereals and potatoes during 

 that period stands at just over lOO per cent. 



It should be noted that in 1888 there was already a 

 great falling-off in our cereal production, especially in 

 wheat, as compared with our high water period from 

 1840 to 1875. 



DIAGRAM II 



This shows that although during the period under 

 consideration there was a great increase in the area of 

 land under grass, the corresponding increase in live stock 

 was very small ; whereas in Germany with no increase 

 in grass a heavy increase was achieved, except in the 

 case of sheep. 



We must push our comparison further if we are to 

 arrive at a true understanding of the difference between 

 the production of the land in the United Kingdom and 

 in Germany. 



The area under cultivation in the former may be put 

 at 50,000,000 acres, in the latter at 80,000,000 acres. ^ 



Our population in 1913 was about 45,000,000 ; theirs 

 68,000,000. 



In that year our total home production of cereals 

 amounted to 308,000,000 bushels. Theirs amounted to 

 nearly 1,500,000,000 bushels, or roughly five times as 

 much as our production. 



In 1913 Germany produced 1,988,000,000 bushels of 

 potatoes, while we could show only a total of 283,000,000 



1 " Land under cultivation " means all land, whether arable or 

 grass put to agricultural use ; our exact figures are 47,000,000 

 acres, plus 9,000,000 acres of rough hill grass land which I value at 

 3 acres as equivalent to i acre average grass and so reduce it to 

 3,000,000 acres for the sake of round figures. 



