A lUlIKF KXAMIXA'l'ION OF FnEE-TRADE PRINCIPLES 345 



latter item out of consideration for the moment — although most 

 of it is just as good land as the " cultivated " area— there is, still, 

 the larger area available for wheat. 



It is true that only 1,063,000 acres were in wheat in 1907, 

 but this deplorable fact offers no evidence of the unsuitableness 

 of such land foi arable purposes, but only of the incptness of 

 our present agricultural system which forces the farmer to 

 convert the bulk of his best arable land into pastures and sheep- 

 feeds, because it pays him better to grow sheep and cattle than 

 to till it for the purpose for which it M^as primarily intended, 

 and to which purpose it is put in every country in the world 

 save our own, namely, to produce food for, and give employ- 

 ment to, the people. 



Briefly, it may be stated that this so-called " cultivated " 

 area of 49 millions of acres, taken as a whole, constitutes the 

 best area of corn-producing laud which cau be found on this 

 globe. 



Here, for example, is a little statement of facts culled from 

 the latest Parliamentary papers on the subject, and, in face 

 of the plain truths therein set forth, it might well be asked — 

 " What justification has the writer of ' The Free-trade ^Nlove- 

 raent' for his condemnation of the very finest corn-growing 

 land in the world ? " 



A^'EKAGE Yield of W^'ueat per Acre in Different Countries * 



Bushels. 



United Kingdom . . 33-98 



Argentina .... 10*58 



Anstria 17*49 



France 19*88 



(term any .... 29*59 



Hungary .... 15*19 



Busbela. 



India 10*71 



New South Wales . 11 -09 



Ontario 21*9(3 



Queensland .... 8*41 



United States . . . 13*57 



Victoria 11*13 



British Soil the most Productive 



Here we find that Great Britain heads the list in point of 

 productiveness of practically every corn-producing country in 

 the world, and heads it by a long lead, and the question which 

 has now to be put, and to which a direct answer will be 

 required, is this : " For what purpose, and with what intent, were 

 the people led to believe that theirs was a 'Niggardly soil,' 

 and that if Great Britain were to grow her own corn — 'vast 

 2wriions of inferior land xoonld need to he cultivated ' 1 " 



Much has been made of Britain's agricultural weakness by 

 Free-traders, political parties, and political economists — each 

 one having some interest to serve — and between them all they 



* Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, 1907, Cd. 4445. 



