12 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOIL 



It is, however, notorious that Great Britain lives 

 from day to day with a margin of but two months 

 between her and famine. Let the seas be closed 

 only for that period to merchant vessels, or let the 

 nations that send her their corn from the harbours of 

 the Seven Seas be unable to launch their supplies, 

 and the price of wheat will mount by leaps and 

 bounds until the poorer classes of the country will 

 find it impossible to buy a loaf of bread. This is the 

 tragic side of the picture, but on other grounds than 

 those of the immediate national danger the situation 

 calls for reform. It is not the truth that English 

 land is unsuited for wheat-growing, or that the great 

 percentage of the land is inferior to that cultivated 

 in France or Germany. The problem exists in an 

 equally acute form as regards stock-raising, and 

 in that connection is no less urgent in demanding 

 a solution. And from both standpoints the issue is 

 bound up with soil fertility. 



Few who are not expert agriculturists can have 

 any conception of the vast discrepancy between the 

 conditions prevailing in England and those obtaining 

 abroad. The situation, however, has been carefully 

 studied and explained by several observers, notably 

 in the early months of this year by Mr. C. W. Fielding 

 in the columns of the Morning Post, and it is from 

 his articles based on official figures that the chief 

 conclusions of the present chapter are drawn. 



In agricultural produce England buys from abroad 

 the enormous total of 333,000,000 worth of im- 

 ported soil products, a value 133,000,000 greate r 

 than the total manufacturing exports, once deduction 



