53 



from . 15 to . 20 per acre. The crop probably represents a 

 capitalisation of . 70 per acre. Like many innovations that give 

 promise of a successful future, it is liable to be overdone, and after 

 a season such as growers experienced last spring it is found to be 

 less remunerative than ordinary market gardening . 



..." English Agriculture contrasted with foreign agriculture. The 

 elaborate returns evolved by the statistical department of the Board 

 of Agri culture are interesting, but there is every reason to think 

 that they do this country the barest justice. It is a well-known fact 

 that not only has the farmer a wider choice of manures than he 

 formerly had, but there has been a marked improvement in the 

 yielding capacity of the cereals he grows. One can scarcely believe 

 that the mean average of ten years is 33.81 bushels of wheat pei 

 acre. I have seen the agriculture of the country in nearly all its 

 phases, and very few crops under four quarters to an acre are grown, 

 while the great bulk of the real wheat lands produce from five to 

 eight quarters. The same criticism is applicable to the other figures 

 issued by the Board of Agriculture. Taken in the average one must 

 expect the countries supporting the smaller acreages of a particular 

 crop to grow the highest yield, for they usually sow it on picked 

 land. Belgium is officially credited with over 35.19 bushels of wheat 

 on the decennial average per acre; while the 1907 statistics of Den- 

 mark show an average of 42.10 bushels. The latter country, how- 

 ever, has only one-seventieth of her arable and grass lands under 

 wheat, whereas Belgium has one-eleventh, and Great Britain rather 

 more than one-twentieth. Comparisons are thus very difficult to 

 draw on the basis of statistics which are entirely computed. One 

 notices again that France's average is the extraordinarily low figure 

 of 20.46 bushels, and Germany can only average 29.44 bushels. 



" The burden of my contention is further apparent while con- 

 trasting the estimated yields of barley in 1908. Great Britain had 

 one-twentieth of her arable and grass area under this crop, having 

 an average of 33.81 bushels to the acre as the mean often years. 

 This compares indifferently with 47.41 bushels, the corresponding 

 average for the Netherlands, but that country had only one-seventy- 

 seventh of her cultivated and grass area devoted to barley growing, 

 implying that it was raised on soil specially suitable for the purpose. 

 On the whole, I think he is a bold critic who would charge the 

 English farmer with incapacity, having regard to the storms he has 

 weathered and the international reputation he has established . 



" Agricultural education is not so well advanced or so well orga- 



