io6 THE FUTURE 



not be to their own good were the land to give 

 employment to its full complement of workers ; 

 and to the physical benefit of our race to have a 

 larger proportion of our people born and brought 

 up in the country. Let them ask themselves if it 

 would not be to their advantage to see produced 

 within the United Kingdom another hundred, 

 another two hundred million pounds' worth of food- 

 stuffs to be exchanged for an equivalent amount of 

 home-manufactured goods. And having answered 

 these questions according to the dictates of common 

 sense, let them demand that a scientific investiga- 

 tion into the possibilities of home production be 

 made forthwith. 



This enquiry is urgently needed. The opinions held 

 by the different sections of the industry represent 

 every shade of thought. At one end there is the 

 opinion of those who will tell us that we are better 

 farmers than the farmers of other countries " are, 

 were, or ever will be," and that we are doing as well 

 as can be expected. 



At the other end there is the view held by many 

 careful students of things agricultural at home and 

 abroad — that if agriculture and the nation went 

 into partnership (as they did abroad) we might 

 in time hope to get out of the soil not quite half 

 of what the Belgians are getting out of their soil, 

 many square miles of which by the way were drift 

 sand and morass two generations ago. 



It seems a very modest ambition, but expressed 

 in terms of home production it would mean the 

 doubling of our present output of £4 per acre, or 

 adding every year another £200,000,000 to our 

 national wealth. 



That we can produce more is not seriously disputed 



