84 THE POSSIBILITIES 



no means can ; and that opinion is so inveterate 

 that we even see men of science, who are generally 

 cautious when dealing with current opinions, 

 endorse that opinion without even taking the 

 trouble of verifying it. It is accepted as an 

 axiom. And yet, as soon as we try to find out any 

 argument in its favour, we discover that it has 

 not the slightest foundation, either in facts or 

 in judgment based upon well-known facts. 



Let us take, for instance, J. B. Lawes' esti- 

 mates of crops which were published every year 

 in The Times. In his estimate of the year 1887 

 he made the remark that during the eight 

 harvest years 1853-1860 "nearly three-fourths 

 of the aggregate amount of wheat consumed in 

 the United Kingdom was of home growth, and 

 little more than one-fourth was derived from 

 foreign sources " ; but five-and- twenty years 

 later the figures were almost reversed that is, 

 "during the eight years 1879-1886, little 

 more than one-third has been provided by home 

 crops and nearly two-thirds by imports." But 

 neither the increase of population by 8,000,000 

 nor the increase of consumption of wheat by 

 six-tenths of a bushel per head could account 

 for the change. In the years 1853-1860 the soil 

 of Britain nourished one inhabitant on every 

 two acres cultivated : why did it require three 

 acres in order to nourish the same inhabitant 



