:<2« 



DISCOVERY 



other country in Europe. Not only do the British Isles 

 carry a denser population than almost any other 

 European country, hut they contain extensive areas of 

 unproductive land in Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and 

 even in England, so that their density of population 

 per square mile of productive area is nearly as great 

 as that in any region populated by white races, and is 

 much greater than in most such. Nor do they contain 

 extensive areas of rich alluvial soils or loam-covered 

 lands such as are found in a number of other densely 

 peopled regions. Finally, in no other country in the 

 world is such a large proportion of the population 

 engaged in non-agricultural pursuits. In pre-war 

 years Great Britain was easily the first manufacturing 

 and commercial country in the world. Had it also 

 been able to supply locally most of its food, its people 

 would certainly have been by far the most energetic of 

 races, and their wealth would have been great enough 

 to hold the rest of mankind in tribute. 



Those who urge a great extension of agricultural 

 productiveness in the British Isles are apt to refer us 

 to some of our neighbours as examples of what can be 

 done, in particular to Denmark and Holland. Now, 

 undoubtedly, the people of these countries make better 

 use of their soil resources than we do. In the first 

 place, however, they probably work harder than Eng- 

 lish people, and give more attention to detail, either by 

 necessity, by nature, or through choice. Moreover, 

 with the exception of commerce in Holland, there are 

 no great competing industries in either country, so 

 that the best brains turn largely to agriculture. This 

 leads to a homogeneity of interests among the people, 

 and the policy of the governments tends to favour that 

 industry in which most of its citizens are grouped. 

 Apart from all this, the agricultural surplus of these 

 countries as usually given in the form of gross exports 

 is deceptive. It is the net surplus that matters ; now 

 Holland imports a much greater value of food materials 

 than it exports, and from the value of Danish exports 

 of animal produce nearly one-half has to be deducted 

 for imports of cereals, food- stuffs, and fertilisers ; both 

 countries, like Great Britain, depend largely upon 

 external sources for their supplies of bread-stuffs. 



In almost all the countries of North-Western Europe 

 the normal imports of feed-stuffs are partly disguised in 

 the form of enormous consignments of food materials 

 for animals. In point of fact, Denmark and Holland 

 have largely transformed their animal industries into 

 a species of manufacture ; they convert the imported 

 maize, oil-cakes, etc., supplemented \\ith home-grown 

 fodders, into high-class goods, such as butter, bacon 

 and eggs, for the export trade. There are similar 

 extensive imports of feeding-stuffs into Great Britain 

 and Ireland, which might conceivably have been 

 lessened by an increased production of home-grown 



fodders. Failing such increase in the future, there 

 would, in order to produce more of our meat and dairy 

 produce at home, be a greater, rather than a smaller, 

 dependence upon shipping to carry food materials 

 directly or indirectly to our shores, since it takes not 

 less than lo lbs. of grain to produce l lb. of meat. The 

 trouble would not end there, because, owing to the 

 normal excess of inward over outward cargoes, it 

 follows that all inward freights would tend to rise.* If 

 by any chance the people of the British Isles decided 

 to import sufficient quantities of feeding-stuffs to 

 produce all their requirements in animal foods even 

 with the maximum of farm-grown fodders, they would 

 soon be up against an economic impasse on putting the 

 plan into practice ; the rise in the prices of imported 

 fodders, together with the simultaneous fall in the world 

 prices of meat and butter, following upon the restriction 

 of the chief market for the latter, would turn any 

 possible profit into a loss, unless the whole change were 

 made very slowly ; even then a point would probably 

 arise some time before the transformation was com- 

 plete, when home conversion of feeding-stuffs would be 

 unprofitable ; for the heavier freights would be a 

 standing obstacle, and there are, moreover, many over- 

 seas areas that, owing to scarcity of labour, to climate, 

 and to abundance of grasslands must be pastoral 

 rather than agricultural, whatever were the relative 

 prices of pasture-produced meat and butter on the one 

 hand, and grain and seed fodders on the other. 



Agriculture in the older-settled regions has to face 

 fierce competition from the newer. This holds in 

 North America as well as in Europe. Thus, American 

 statistics inform us that the States of New York, New- 

 Jersey, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, formerly in 

 the main agricultural States, now annually consume 

 together 105,000,000 more bushels than they produce. 

 A predominantly manufacturing area such as North- 

 Eastern America or Great Britain can scarcely afford 

 to raise its food prices above the world level in order to 

 protect its farmers. That would involve its industries 

 in the pajTnent of wages containing an excess element 

 in the form of the difference between its food prices and 

 those of the areas in or with wiiich its products would 

 have to compete. The British farmer is in the un- 

 fortunate position of being compelled to see the in- 

 terests of his business take a second place ; he must 

 subserve the life-forces of the nation. 



Assuming that means could be devised to render the 

 British Isles largely independent of external non- 

 tropical food supplies, there would be disadvantages, 



' Since some ships already have to leave British ports partly 

 or entirely in ballast, any change such as that suggcste(>, involv- 

 ing an increase in the tonnage of goods imported, would mean 

 still more unprofitable space on outward voyages, the cost of 

 which would be; added to inward freights. 



