180 BRITAIN FOR THE BRITON 



require the yield (afc 30 bushels the acre) of about seven million 

 acres, in addition to the imports from India and the Colonies, to 

 provide bread for all the population of the United Kingdom for a 

 whole year, and if from any cause all over-sea supplies were stopped, 

 this home produce would be enough for more than nine months' 

 supply. 



" Seven million acres out of nearly 48 millions under crops of 

 some kind in the United Kingdom is not an undue proportion, 

 seeing that before 1860, without bounties or protection, we had 

 more than 4 million acres so cultivated." * 



As these calculations are based on an average of 30 bushels 

 per acre, he adds — 



" In short it is difficult to find any writer on husbandry who 

 reckoned less than 5 qrs. per acre as the average yield of best- 

 cultivated land before the decay of agriculture set in. It is 

 therefore not unreasonable to expect that under a system of 

 occupying ownerships, with a sufficient bounty on wheat-growing, 

 and the consequent good cultivation, the average yield would be 

 at least -10 bushels per acre." t 



But in corroboration of this, and in order to bring the 

 matter more up-to-date, we supplement his text with a personal 

 reminiscence. 



" The present writer was visiting a farmer in the south of 

 England a few years ago at harvest time. He remarked on the 

 poorness of the wheat crop, and pointed to a large field in the 

 neighbourhood, the yield of which, in the opinion of competent 

 judges, was at least fifty bushels an acre. The reply was, ' Tiiat 

 field is the property of a butcher in the village, who spares neither 

 labour nor manure ; he cultivates in a manner that I cannot afford to 

 do.' This farmer, about two years afterwards, having lost what 

 capital he had, was obliged to leave the farm." J 



How Agricultuee Eamifies among the People 



Mr. CoUiugs then points out how widespread are the effects 

 of agriculture and how its influence ramifies through all sections 

 of the community. 



" Every man, woman, and child in the country is affected by the 

 prosperity or depression of agriculture. In the proposed land 

 reform the yeoman farmer is regarded as the nation's instrument 

 to secure national gains, comforts, and safety ; the fact that he 



* " Land Reform," p. 295. The Right Hon. Jesse Ceilings, 

 t Ibid., p. 301 t Ibid. 



