Grass and Arable 



import more and more food, while our home- 

 grown supply tends to decrease. During the 

 past forty years many millions of acres of Eng- 

 lish land have been laid down to grass, and the 

 consequent loss of arable land has not been 

 made up for by the increased head of stock. 

 Taking the whole production of the soil of 

 the United Kingdom, this is undoubtedly de- 

 creasing in spite of the fact that during the 

 past seven or eight years the prices of 

 aofricultural commodities have been orood. 

 This decrease in the whole production would 

 be more apparent, and very much more 

 striking, if our statistics showed separately 

 the local increase in the specialized produc- 

 tion of fruit, vegetables, etc., in such districts 

 as Evesham and Wisbech. 



It is a very serious fact that while science 

 has provided the means for materially increas- 

 ing the productivity of the soil, the English 

 agriculturist, far from making use of them, 

 has allowed the production of his land to 

 diminish. During the past ten years a strik- 

 ing increase has been effected in Denmark 

 in the yield per acre, yet the average prices 

 for agricultural produce in that country 



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