128 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 



4. Five methods are outlined for obtaining a more 

 intensive cultivation of the soil and providing employ- 

 ment upon the land. These are the establishment of 

 large industrialized farms working on a considerable 

 area with all the economic advantages of organization 

 and scientific management, the establishment of colonies 

 of small holders linked together by a co-operative 

 organization, the intensification of the methods of 

 existing occupiers, the reclamation and settlement of 

 waste and undeveloped areas, the establishment of 

 certain subsidiary agricultural industries. 



5. If the arable land was increased to the area it 

 occupied in 1872, by about 4 million acres, and chiefly 

 devoted to wheat, the amount of wheat grown in the 

 country would be raised to about 59 per cent, of our 

 total requirements, and at the same time our production 

 cf cattle food would be increased rather than diminished. 

 As British Possessions already send us wheat to the 

 extent of over 30 per cent, of our requirements, all the 

 wheat we require to within 10 per cent, would be pro- 

 duced within the Empire. This extension of arable land 

 is still below the limit of what is possible ; moreover, a 

 further increase of production is easily possible by the 

 intensification of our existing methods of cultivation 

 and manuring. 



6. The commercial success of any scheme for the 

 extension of the arable area must ultimately depend 

 upon the prices that rule for agricultural produce, i.e., 

 upon the intensity of foreign competition. If the State 

 decides that such an increase is necessary in the interests 

 of the national security, it may be driven to adopt some 

 system of bounties or protective duties in order to keep 

 the returns to the farmer up to such a level as will allow 



