The Land and the Couiniunity. 135 



Another authority, an extensive proprietor of corn mills, had 

 also maintained that, under the existing circumstancs, it would 

 have taken her thirty-four years to lay by the bread of one.^ 

 The j&rst of these authorities (Harte, Canon of Windsor) had 

 estimated the arable land of England and Wales at 15,000,000 

 acres. Out of this probably ten million acres were annually 

 cultivated with different kinds of crops ; one-fourth of the 

 produce of which would be used for feeding cattle or would 

 be destroyed by birds and insects, and another fourth would 

 be required for malting and distilling ; leaving only five 

 millions for making bread, or raising leguminous crops, such 

 as peas, potatoes, etc. The second of these authorities (Charles 

 Smith, the corn factor) had made the following table of an 

 average year's corn dealings in England and Wales : — 



15,349,921 ... 13,555,850 ... 422,352 ... 23,728 



From these statistics Arthur Young - deduced the following 

 facts, corroborative of both the above statements. First, that 

 the annual exportation, which might be considered as the 

 surplus produce after the wants of the nation had been sup- 

 plied, was barely one thirty-second part of the consumption ; 

 one thirty-third part of the growth, exclusive of the seed ; one 

 thirty-sixth part of the growth, including the seed ; and not 

 near one-third of the seed itself. Secondly, it having been 

 estimated that 62,000,000 acres could be forthcoming if re- 

 quired for some form of cultivation out of a supposed area in 

 the British Isles of 72,000,000,^ it was possible for the popula- 



1 T/iree Tracts on the Corn Laws, p. 203. Charles Smith, 1766. 



^ Observe, however. Young's perplexity on this subject expressed in 

 the note on page 55 et seq. of the Farmer's Letters, and in the note on 

 page 98 of the Political Essays, etc., sub vac. "Agriculture." 



' Id. Ibid., p. 92. That this was an exaggerated estimate we now 



