TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 749 



and half a score of other Blue-books, descrihed variously as ' Statistical Abstracts,' 

 ' Agricultural Returns,' ' Special Reports,' and under other names. 



But vast as is the information afforded, their very vastness makes them all but 

 ^iseless to the classes whom they are intended to serve. Time is wanted to digest 

 the details, and, moreover, the Blue-books are made the more unavailing to pract'ical 

 men of business, in that not one of them has so much as an index to guide the reader 

 tlirough its mazes. Similar publications of foreign Governments are better edited, 

 notably those of the United States, of Germany, and of Italy. The author strongly 



advocated the early establishment of similar institutions in tha United Kingdom 



trade, as he believed, not requiring protection, but development. 



To begin with, our own Blue-books— together with those of Germany, Italy, 

 and France — should be made useful, by concentration and extracts, to our mercantile 

 community, who at present scarcely know of their existence. 



2. Corn or Cattle : a Comparison of the Econoviic Results of Agriculture and 

 Cattle-raising in relation to National Food-supply.^ By William E. A. 

 Axon, M.B.S.L., F.S.8. 



The people of Great Britain are largely dependent for dailv bread upon supplies 

 from foreign sources, and the proportion of imported over "home-grown foods is 

 steadily increasing. So marked, indeed, has this tendencv become in late years, that 

 an American publicist has roundly asserted that 'if every acre of land in the British 

 Isles were cuhivated to its utmost capacity, the inliab'itants could not raise food 

 sufficient to supply the common necessaries of life.' 



The amount of land in tiie United Kingdom devoted to permanent pasture is 

 24,717,092 acres, calculated to produce, at the rate of 501b. of flesh-meat per acre, 

 1,235,854,600 lb., which, at Mr. Greg's estimate of consumption of Sib. per daj-, 

 shows a sustaming power for 1,128,6.34 persons per annum. The cf-rn crops cover 

 10,672,086 acres, and the average yield of grain would be 17,929,10-;,4801b., which 

 at 2 lb. per head per day would feed 24,560,417 persons. Hence, without reckoning 

 at all on the green crops, we have a sustaining power for 25§ millions of persons. 



There have been various estimates as to the extent of English food-production. 

 Mr. Caird supplied figm-es from which, in 1877, ]\Ir. Stephen Bourne calculated the 

 average corn-growth at 54,000,000 cwts. ; but it is a gradually decreasing quantity. 

 Mr. Bourne further reckons the growth of English flesh-meat at 25i million cwts., a 

 much higher estimate than would fbllow' from" the basis adopted by Mr. Greg. 



But let us suppose the present process by which corn-growing districts have 

 gradually been converted into grazing lands to continue until the entire available 

 surface is devoted to cattle-raising. The total of arable and pasture acreage of the 

 United Kingdom, in 1880, was 47,586,700, which, at a production of 50 lb. weight 

 of butchers' meat per annum, would give a net result of 2,379,335,000 lb., or an 

 amount sufficient, at 3 lb. per day, to feed 2,172,908 persons. If mankind were ex- 

 clusively carnivorous, a much larger quiintitv would be required. The Canadian 

 boatmen and the Esquimaux," when deprived of other food, consume from six to 

 eight pounds daily. If, however, instead of being devoted to cattle-raising, we- 

 suppose the same acreage to be under corn crops, and to produce on an averao& 

 1,4201b. to the acre, we have an annual return of 67,673,114,0001b., or an amount 

 sufficient, at two pounds per day, ^o fe^d 9f^702,g96 persons. After leaving an 

 ample margin for any diversity of qpinioji as t.o the base§ of fiuch calculations, it is 

 clear that there is sufficient material ii; our own land for the food of its people. 

 The real remedy for over-population is food reform. Thus Dr. C. D. Hunter argues 

 that 42 men could be supported on 100 acres devoted to sheep-raising, 53 on a 

 dairy farm, 250 on wheat, and 683 on potatoes. 



The British farmer, in face of 'the competition of clieap foreign-grown corn, has 

 turned his attention more and more to cattle-raising, but there are not wanting 



' rublished in full as a pamphlet by John Hcjwood, Deansgate, Manchester, 

 and 11, Paternoster Row, London. 



