208 BRITAIN FOR THE BRITON 



With its four acres, one acre is put down in wlieat each year 

 to ensure a proper rotation of crops. The average produce per 

 acre on well-tilled land is thirty-two bushels. The average 

 consumption of wheat per head of the population is six bushels 

 per annum, or eighteen bushels for this family of three. This 

 leaves fourteen bushels per annum for the market. 



As a producer of wheat and other food-stuffs this family at 

 once becomes an important factor in the commonwealth. 



^Multiply this system of State aid to our deserving poor ; 

 let every man who is willing to work have the chance and the 

 right of acquiring on easy terms — and yet at the cost of the 

 State — a parcel of land which will not only support himself 

 and his family, but produce, at the same time, something over 

 for the use of the community, and it is easy to see that you 

 would launch into existence a veritable army of prosperous 

 agriculturists who would at once become a highly important 

 part of the Commonwealth and a tremendous factor in the 

 national economv. 



Wh.\T the FoUH-ACEE PllINCIPLE .MEANS 



Carried through to a logical conclusion, we find the applica- 

 tion of this four-acre principle of small holdings to the whole 

 of the land of this country means the production of such a 

 prodigious quantity of wheat that we become fairly astonished. 

 Here is the position. 



We have 48,000,000 acres of "cultivated" land, or 

 64,000,000 acres of "cultivated" and "cultivable" land, and 

 it follows that if one-fourth of a four-acre holding produces 

 thirty-two bushels of wheat, we shall find that in one case we 

 shall produce 384,000,000 busliels of wheat, and in the other 

 512,000,000 bushels — both quantities being largely in excess 

 of the national requirements of 280,000,000 bushels — while 

 reserving the remaining three-fourths of the land for ordinary 

 crop rotation. It will also be found that, in such a case, the 

 entire population of tlie country would have to be employed in 

 agriculture. 



Such a condition would be neither necessary nor desirable, 

 and this single illustration of what niight be done with our land 

 is simply introduced, parenthetically, to show the enormous 

 potentialities of agriculture. 



Reduced, however, to a rational system of land tenures, as 

 described in Chapters 24, 25, and 20, our land would be capable, 

 as has been pointed out, of producing every quarter of wheat we 

 require i'or liomii consumption, and all other staple fooda hesides. 



