100 THE POSSIBILITIES 



while Mr. Prout, in his farm near Sawbridge- 

 worth (Herts), on a cold heavy clay, has obtained 

 since 1861 crops of from thirty to thirty-eight 

 bushels of wheat, year after year, without any 

 farm manure at all, by good steam ploughing 

 and artificial manure only. (R. Haggard, I. 528.) 

 Under the allotment system the crops reach 

 forty bushels. In some farms they occasionally 

 attain even fifty and fifty-seven bushels per acre. 

 If we intend to have a correct appreciation 

 of British agriculture, we must not base it upon 

 what is obtained on a few selected and well- 

 manured plots ; we must inquire what is done 

 with the territory, taken as a whole.* Now, 



was the head of Rothamstead for many years, maintained from 

 his own experience that growing wheat in England is more 

 profitable than rearing live stock. The same opinion was often 

 expressed by the experts whose testimonies are reproduced by 

 Rider Haggard. In many places of his Rural England one finds 

 also a mention of high wheat crops, up to fifty-six bushels 

 per acre, obtained in many places in this country. 



* The figures which I take for these calculations are given 

 in Agricultural Returns of the Board of Agriculture and Agricul- 

 tural Statistics for 1911, vol. xlvi., pt. 1. They are as follows 

 for the year 1910 : 



Acres. 

 Total area (Great Britain) . . . 56,803,000 



Uncultivable area 24,657,070 



(23,680,000 

 in 1895) 



Cultivable area 32,145,930 



Out of it, under the plough . . . 14,668,890 

 Out of it, under permanent pasture 17,477,040 



(During the last ten years, since the census of 1901, the culti- 

 vable area decreased by 323,000 acres, while the urban area 



