CAN THE U.K. BE SELF-SUPPORTING? 99 



would have to be converted into arable land, though 

 doubtless a good deal less would do the work, because 

 any increase approaching this magnitude in our acreage 

 under the plough would only be attained under such a 

 generally higher standard of farming that the production 

 on all the better lands would be greatly intensified. We 

 are so far from the realization of any development on this 

 scale that even to set down, these approximate estimates 

 of how it might be accomplished may seem to be vision- 

 ary ; however, imperfect and remote as they may be, I 

 have thought it advisable to let them stand. So much 

 has been said from time to time as to the possibility 

 on the one hand of rendering Great Britain self-sup- 

 porting in the matter of food, and on the other of the 

 impracticability of any departure from our present 

 system, that we may as well determine what order of 

 facts we have to face. To produce our own food may 

 be a vision ; I would prefer to regard it as an ideal 

 towards which to work, confident that every step we 

 take in that direction is an addition to the strength and 

 stability of the nation. 



To return to the more modest programme under con- 

 sideration, the reconversion of nearly 4 million acres of 

 grass land to arable — the restoration of the state of 

 affairs prevailing in 1872 — it is at least certain that 

 even such a distribution of the land (in Great Britain, 

 18 million acres of arable out of a total of 32 million 

 acres of cultivated land, or 56 per cent.) by no means 

 represents the limit of possible effort. In France the 

 arable land was, in 1910, nearly 65 per cent, of the 

 cultivated land ; in Denmark, in 1912, the arable land 

 including the rotation grass was as much as 89.4 per 

 cent, of the agricultural area ; even in Holland, with 



