THE SACRIFICE OF AGRICULTUKE 175 



Then Belgium has another surprise for us. She has Init a 

 tiny cultivable area, only 4,350,000 acres, and yet she manaf^^es 

 to raise 1,14.S,083 pigs, while we, with our enormous area under 

 "cultivation" of 48^000,000 acres, raise but 3,953,834 of these 

 animals. Tliis works out at 2G pigs for every 100 acres under 

 cultivation in Belgium, and only 8 per every 100 acres in the 

 United Kingdom. 



We find also that Belgium has 1,779,678 head of horned 

 beasts, while we have 11,588,560. Tliis works out at 40 head 

 for every 100 acres under cultivation in Belgium, and only 24 

 per 100 acres in the United Kingdom. 



How OTHER Countries do it 



Again, if we similarly compare the production and industry 

 of every civilised country in the world with that of our own 

 country we shall find much to deplore all along the line. 

 Everywhere else the land is regarded as the chief source of 

 wealth, the chief means of employing and supporting the people, 

 the backbone of the nation, and its refuge in the time of 

 trouble. Roughly speaking, they rely upon their land as a 

 means of employing and supporting about onc-tJiird or more of 

 the entire population ; of producing practically the whole of 

 their food-stuffs ; of preventing an exhaustive outflow of emigra- 

 tion : and last, but not least, of stimulating the demand for 

 locally manufactured goods by maintaining in a general state 

 of prosperity a large agricultural population, the spending 

 power of which must be enormous. 



With us the reverse of all this is the case ; our land industry 

 is neglected, and it supports the minimum head of the population 

 in the whole of Europe and produces the minimum head of live 

 stock ; it is a source of weakness to the nation, inasmuch as we 

 are forced to rely on outside aid for the very bread we eat, and 

 a large proportion of most other foods ; it compels exhaustive 

 emigration because there is no employment to be found on the 

 land ; it induces poverty, and creates, therefore, a mass of pesti- 

 lential pau])erism : and it kills that demand for manufactured 

 goods which, under other conditions, would undoubtedly come 

 from a prosperous agricultural population that might be 

 numbered in millions. 



The Money Value of what we do NOT Grow 



Turning to the money value of the foods we are obliged to 

 import, because the fatal policy of Cobden has deprived the 

 people of tlieir undoubted right to grow them on their own 



