86 LAND FOR FOOD PRODUCTION 



The most striking feature of the change is that in 

 England alone more than three and a half million acres 

 of arable land have been laid down to grass since 1872. 

 That acreage ought certainly to be recovered for the 

 plough, not necessarily the same fields, but an equivalent 

 elsewhere, for even in 1872 there was a disproportionate 

 amount of grass in Great Britain. But any land which 

 paid then for cultivation can be worked nowadays more 

 cheaply in proportion to the output, if for no other 

 reason because of the introduction of the self-binder 

 and the motor plough and cultivator since 1872. The 

 actual cost of cultivation may not have been greatly 

 reduced because of the rise in wages, but the value of 

 machinery lies in the power it gives of speedy working 

 so that the farmer can utilize better the opportunities 

 afforded by the weather. Hence labour has become, 

 more effective, and from that and other causes the out- 

 put has been increased. 



It has been objected that much of the land thus laid 

 down in the last forty years has now become so improved 

 as grass land that it ought not to be ploughed up ; but 

 if it is good grass land it will make the better arable land. 

 If its capacity for responding to cultivation, and not the 

 profit it will earn without any labour, is to be the 

 criterion of whether land should be left in grass or not, 

 then the factor deciding on the side of grass will be the 

 degree of heaviness and wetness rather than of richness. 

 Even a fatting pasture will produce much more cattle 

 food under the plough, though as pasture its produc- 

 tivity may be high enough to justify its retention in 

 grass. But we are not concerned with the fatting pas- 

 tures ; the bulk of the grass land in the country could, 

 at best, only be described as useful, and with skilled 



