178 THE LAND AND ITS PROBLEMS 



how serious they are. They are facts, however, that are 

 very Httle known ; therefore the first thing is to bring 

 them home to every citizen, and particularly to make the 

 urban population realize their importance. We see the 

 land of the United Kingdom producing barely half what 

 it is able to produce ; and the vast area of agricultural 

 land in the Empire barely scratched. 



Yet it is the produce of the land which, given in 

 exchange for manufactured commodities, makes the 

 wheels of industry move. It is only by the full develop- 

 ment of our land that the over-pressure of population 

 in our urban areas can be relieved and prevented. And 

 it is only by increasing the number of cultivators of the 

 soil that we can hope to develop the vast land resources 

 of our Empire. It is no exaggeration to say that our 

 future as an Empire, and as a race, depends upon our 

 ability to increase the agricultural population by some 

 six or seven millions within the next few decades. 



It can be done, if the needed public opinion is created, 

 and if the Governments of the Empire set themselves 

 to the task. Seeing that we are already so short of 

 agricultural population in the United Kingdom, it would 

 help the problem little just to transfer agriculturists to 

 our new lands overseas — in fact such a process would 

 be disastrous to the Motherland. We want new agricul- 

 tural population, and there are three sources from which 

 it can come : 



(i) Generally, from the rising generation by giving 

 school instruction which will turn its thoughts towards 

 a career on the land. And attention should be especially 

 concentrated on the rural children, to check their drifting 

 into towns — this has been done successfully in other 

 countries. 



(2) As many as possible of the children brought up 



