60 THE GREAT WAR 



productive if the occupiers were owners instead 

 of tenants. 1 



1 The average rent of the agricultural land (excluding 

 woodlands) let by the Commissioners is 1 an acre. From 

 this must be deducted the outlay on the farms and the 

 management expenses. This low rent means low produc- 

 tion. The present writer knows a farm (about 200 acres) 

 in the Midland Counties let by the Commissioners at a 

 rent of about 16s. an acre. The land which is good is 

 in a foul condition, overrun with docks, thistles, twitch, and 

 other rubbish, producing probably not one-fifth of what 

 it is capable of producing under intensive tillage. The 

 farmer employs one man and a lad, with two other people 

 during hay-making time. The Commissioners in this case 

 seem to be satisfied with receiving the rent without enquir- 

 ing into the state of the land. At a time when a committee 

 is sitting to consider the question of an increase of wheat 

 supply, it seems a mockery to allow such a state of things 

 as this to exist. The annual consumption of wheat in the 

 United Kingdom is 6 bushels per head of the population. 

 If 100 acres of the farm in question were properly culti- 

 vated in wheat it would supply (at 32 bushels an acre) 

 about 550 persons with wheat for the whole of one year. 



