CHAPTER XYIII 



THE SACRIFICE OF AGRICULTURE — THE BURDEN FALLS 



UPON ALL CLASSES HOW GREAT BRITAIN CAN GROW 



ALL HER OWN FOOD SUPPLIES 



Having devoted considerable space to tlie controversial side of 

 this momentous question, it now becomes necessary to remove 

 it from that region and place it in the category of ascertained 

 facts. 



The first step in this direction is to take the area of the 

 United Kingdom and ascertain whether it is, in respect to 

 extent and productiveness, capable of yielding a supply of food- 

 stufl's equal to the total requirements of the country. If it 

 be so, then let us build up some perfectly simple, workable 

 system that will enable our fellow-countrymen to turn the 

 enormous potentialities they have in their land into a moving, 

 living power, and so put a stop to that terrible waste from 

 •which the country has suffered since it was fatuously considered 

 necessary to sacrifice agriculture so that manufactures might 

 have the better chance of rapid development. 



That the country has sustained enormous loss through this 

 fatal, retrogressive step is beyond dispute; while the poverty 

 of the masses is so widespread and phenomenal as to stand 

 apart from that of all other countries in the Western world, 

 with perhaps the single exception of Eussia. It is also beyond 

 doubt that, although this curse of poverty falls with especial 

 severity on the poorest classes, the burden falls with irregular 

 incidence on all classes of the community. Every class of the 

 community is interested in the question, as the heavy and 

 unnecessary taxes fall alike on Free-traders and Tariff-reformers, 

 and all would therefore benefit from their diminution. 



The total area of the United Kingdom is given as 77,684,000 

 acres, of which 13,504,000 acres are returned as " uncultivable 

 or uncultivated, including mountain, waters, roads, etc." We 

 have, then, an area represented by 64,180,000 acres which may 

 be regarded as a cultivable area. Of this the area returned as 



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