PRODUCTION 85 



output in manufacture, per head of the population, 

 was before the war the highest in the world — can at 

 the same time achieve an agricultural output, per 

 acre, which throws every other country into the 

 shade. The second lesson is that light and poor 

 soils can in a few decades be turned into the most 

 highly productive soil if scientifically handled. It is 

 mainlv a question of building up the lunnus (or vegetable 

 matter) in the soil ; this was done by ploughing in green 

 manure crops, vetches, lupins, etc., and by applying 

 dressings of farm-yard manure far heavier than any of 

 our farmers would think of apj^lying, coupled with the 

 full use of artificial manures. 



Before the war the gross receipts for the produce from 

 a little over 4,000,000 acres (the agricultural area of 

 Belgium) reached the sum of /^8o,ooo,ooo sterling ; 

 compare this with our ^(^ 200 ,000,000 sterling from 

 50,000,000 acres ! 



There is a third lesson we should learn from Belgium, 

 and that is the value of a dual occupation to the towns- 

 man ; we have been shown something of this in the 

 results derived from the large development of urban 

 allotments that took place in this country during the war. 



In Belgium the system of providing the town worker 

 with a garden, of sufficient size to give him supple- 

 mentary occupation when his main work is slack, has 

 been carefully developed ; and over 70 per cent of the 

 Antwerp dock labourers have land sufficient to give them 

 not only healthful occupation when dock work is slack, 

 but to make a valuable contribution of fresh vegetables 

 for the use of their families. 



The example of Belgium shows clearly that it is not 

 true that a country must be either industrial or agri- 

 cultural, but that it is possible to achieve the highest 



