CHAPTER III. 



THE POSSIBILITIES OF AGRICULTURE. 



The development of agriculture Over-population prejudice 

 Can the soil of Great Britain feed its inhabitants ? British 

 agriculture Compared with agriculture in France ; in 

 Belgium ; in Denmark Market-gardening ; its achieve- 

 ments Is it profitable to grow wheat in Great Britain? 

 American agriculture : intensive culture in the States. 



THE industrial and commercial history of 

 the world during the last fifty years has 

 been a history of decentralisation of industry. 

 It was not a mere shifting of the centre of 

 gravity of commerce, such as Europe witnessed 

 in the past, when the commercial hegemony 

 migrated from Italy to Spain, to Holland, and 

 finally to Britain : it had a much deeper meaning, 

 as it excluded the very possibility of commercial 

 or industrial hegemony. It has shown the 

 growth of quite new conditions, and new con- 

 ditions require new adaptations. To endeavour 

 to revive the past would be useless : a new de- 

 parture must be taken by civilised nations. 

 Of course, there will be plenty of voices to argue 



