OF AGRICULTURE. 83 



porting manufactured goods and of importing 

 food. And we are told, moreover, that even 

 if it were possible to grow in Western Europe 

 all the food necessary for its inhabitants, there 

 would be no advantage in doing so as long as the 

 same food can be got cheaper from abroad. 

 Such are the present teachings and the ideas 

 which are current in society at large. And yet 

 it is easy to prove that both are totally erroneous : 

 plenty of food could be grown on the territories 

 of Western Europe for much more than their 

 present populations, and an immense benefit 

 would be derived from doing so. These are the 

 two points which I have now to discuss. 



To begin by taking the most disadvantageous 

 case : is it possible that the soil of Great Britain, 

 which at present yields food for one-third only 

 of its inhabitants, could provide all the necessary 

 amount and variety of food for 41,000,000 

 human beings when it covers only 56,000,000 

 acres all told forests and rocks, marshes and 

 peat-bogs, cities, railways and fields out of 

 which only 33,000,000 acres are considered as 

 cultivable ? * The current opinion is, that it by 



* Twenty-three per cent, of the total area of England, 40 

 per cent, in Wales, and 76 per cent, in Scotland are now under 

 wood, coppice, mountain heath, water, etc. The remainder 

 that is, 32,777,613 acres which were under culture and per- 

 manent pasture in the year 1890 (only 32,094,658 in 1911), 

 may be taken as the " cultivable " area of Great Britain. 



