OF AGRICULTURE. 225 



Happily enough, the Bedfordshire County Coun- 

 cil has been eager to acquire land for small 

 holdings, and, after having spent 40,000 in the 

 acquisition of land, they have, up to 30th June, 

 1911, provided one-third of the applicants with 

 2,759 acres the total demand, by a thousand 

 applicants, having already attained 12,350 acres. 

 And yet all this progress still appears in- 

 significant by the side of the demand for vege- 

 tables which grows every year (and necessarily 

 must grow, as is seen by comparing the low con- 

 sumption of vegetables in this country with 

 the consumption of home-grown vegetables in 

 Belgium, indicated by Mr. Rowntree in his 

 Lessons from Belgium). The result is a steadily 

 increasing importation of vegetables to this 

 country, which has attained now more than 

 8,000,000.* 



* The imports of fruit and vegetables, fresh and preserved, 

 were 12,900,000 in 1909, and 14,193,000 in 1911, out of which 

 fruit alone must have figured for at least 4,000,000. Potatoes 

 alone, imported and retained for home consumption in the 

 United Kingdom, figure in this item for the sums of from 

 6,908,550 in 1908 to 3,314,200 in 1910. The industry of dried 

 fruit, and especially of dried vegetables, has not yet developed 

 in this country, the result being that during the Boer War 

 Britain paid a weekly tribute to Germany for dried vegetables, 

 which attained many thousands of pounds every week. A nation 

 cannot let its land be transformed into hunting reserves at the 

 rate it is being done in this country without having to send 

 the best and the most enterprising portion of its population over- 

 seas, and without relying for its daily food upon its neigh- 

 bours and commercial rivals. 



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