THE SACRIFICE OF AGRICULTURE 179 



concentrated upon the agriculture of Ent^land, and we shall soon 

 get silenced the croakers who talk about the possibility of the 

 country feeding her people." "" 



Speaking of the fatal policy of the Manchester School 

 cheapening the price of wheat to the sacrifice of British 

 agriculture and all that is involved in the destruction of our 

 great land industry, he says — 



" I know it has been said, and is said, that an English farmer 

 owning his land cannot compete with foreign dealers ; but I think 

 that is doubtful, and I am sure that if the land were owned by the 

 State, and farmed systematically by the best methods, we might 

 grow our own corn more cheaply than we could buy it," t 



Cheap Wheat means Loss of Health and Life 



Kef erring to Cobden's hackneyed phrase about Free Trade 

 " giving to mankind the means of enjoying the fullest abundance 

 of earth's goods," he said — 



" Bat it means much more than that. However, let us reduce 

 these fine phrases to figures. Suppose America can sell us wheat at 

 30s. a quarter, and suppose ours costs 82.S-. a quarter. That is a gain 

 of one-fifteenth in the cost of wheat. We get a loaf of bread for M. 

 instead of having to 'pag 'Z\d. That is alt the fine phrases mean. 



" What do we lose ? TVe lose the beauty and health of our 

 factory towns ; we lose annually some twenty thousand lives in 

 Lancashire alone ; we arc in constant danger of great strikes, like that 

 which recently so crushed our operatives ; we are reduced to the 

 meanest shifts and the most violent acts of piracy and slaughter 

 to ' open up markets ' for our goods ; we lose the stamina of our 

 people ; and — ire lose our agricidture. Did you ever consider what 

 it involves, this ruin of British agriculture ? " f 



Mr. COLLINGS ON THE NEED FOR AGRICULTURE 



Mr. Collings, in his able work, " Land Eeform," deals with 

 this question from many points of view. He argues in a most 

 convincing manner that, even under the present system of land, 

 tenures which, in comparison with the agricultural system in 

 operation in most countries in the Western world, is not the one 

 best calculated to produce the maximum yield from the land, 

 we could nevertheless grow practically the whole of the wheat 

 required for home consumption, 



" Taking the supplies of 11)03 as a basis for the calculation, it would 



* " Merrie England," p. 30. Robert Blatcbford. 

 + Ibid., p. 33. t ^id- 



