INTRODUCTION XVll 



and by probing to the root of existing evils and anomalies, 

 discover the true causes and effect of our threatened national 

 decline and decrepitude. Particularly so must we reject the 

 ridiculously illogical idea, that because England has prospered 

 in the past, she will, ergo, be able to continue to do so, not- 

 withstanding the undeniable fact that foreign competitors have 

 been making tremendous progressive strides in the past few 

 years, and that they are evidently determined, and are planning, 

 to overtake and even to pass her if possible in the near future. 



Critical investigation becomes especially necessary in con- 

 nection with the land, for of all economic questions this is the 

 least understood. We talk glibly about sending the people 

 " back to the land " as though the land of Britain, in times 

 lang syne, had been under a condition of general cultivation. 

 As a matter of fact Great Britain has never cultivated her 

 lands as France, Belgium, Germany, and the other civilised 

 States of Europe understand the meaning of the term. From 

 the days of the Tudor Kings, and before their time e\'en, to 

 the time when such agriculture as we had was destroyed by 

 Cobden and his followers, Britain cultivated just sufficient land 

 to produce what she required to feed her comparatively sparse 

 population — and no more, and to talk of sending the British 

 people Back to the Land is to indulge in a huge misnomer. 

 Truly, up to the Eepeal of the Corn Laws, in the forties, the 

 Country had far more wheat land under cultivation than it has 

 now, and the necessity for importing corn from abroad Avas 

 practically non-existent. Had these laws and the land tenures 

 of the country been judiciously amended to meet the altered 

 conditions, instead of being entirely swept away, the system 

 of agriculture could have been gradually extended to meet the 

 ever-growing requirements of the country. 



The United Ivingdom has a " Cultivated " area — save the 

 mark ! — of 49,000,000 acres of the very finest corn producing 

 land in the world, with a reserve of about 12,000,000 to 

 16,000,000 of " uncultivated " land, most of which, if brought 

 under the plough, would prove to be excellent corn-growing 

 land. The fact that she has only 1,663,588 acres under wheat 

 to-day out of this vast area, proves the Ineptness of Govern- 

 ments past and present, the influence of Vested Interests, 

 the impossibility of the present system of Land Tenures, and 

 the Insensate Party Systeisi, rather than the incapability of 

 British soil to grow wheat for British people. 



It is, therefore, with the direct object of concentrating public 

 attention upon the urgent necessity for bringing about, as 

 quickly as possible, vital national reforms, that the author 

 submits this work to the patient consideration of his readers, 



