M. — ^AGRICULTURE. 



213 



to the uses of a horticultural holding, from 20 to 25 men and 80 to 100 

 women, according to season, were at v/ork on it, and the minimum 

 wage for men was 20s. per week. The holding was increased gradually 

 to 310 acres, and at the present time gives employment on an average 

 to 90 men and 50 women during the winter months and 110 men and 

 200 women during the summer months. In 1913 the wages bill was 

 7,981L, and in 1918 lO.OOOi. per annum, that is, over 3U. per acre. 



Another concrete example of the effect of intensity of cultivation 

 on density of population is provided by the comparison of two not far 

 distant districts — Rutland and the Isle of Ely. The rich soil and in- 

 dustrious temperament of the inhabitants of the Isle have justly brought 

 it prosperity and fame. The Isle of Ely comprises 236,961 acres, of 

 which number 170,395 are arable; Eutland 97,087 acres with 35,000 

 arable. The land of Rutland is occupied by 475 persons, that of the 

 Isle by 2,002 ; the average acreage per occupier in Rutland is 206, in 

 the Isle 118. The total number of agricultural workers in Rutland is 

 2,146, and in the Isle 13,382. The density of agricultural population 

 in teiTTis of total acreage is in Rutland 2.5 per 100 acres, and in the 

 Isle 5.6, or 20 more cultivators to the square mile in the Isle of Ely 

 than in Rutland; from which the curious may estimate the possibility 

 of home colonisation by introducing as a supplement to extensive 

 agriculture such an amount of intensive cultivation as may be practised 

 in districts similar in climate and soil to the Isle. 



The immediate object of the comparison is to show, however, that 

 the difference between the closeness of colonisation of the two lands 

 is accurately presented by the difference between the acreages amenable 

 to intensive cultivation which by reason of soil must, however, always 

 remain relatively larger in the Isle than in Rutland. Thus in Rut- 

 land the area under fruit is 204 acres, and in the Isle 7,126. If 

 these areas and the workers thereon be deducted from the total 

 arable in the two districts, the respective agricultural populations 

 in terms of 100 acres of arable become almost identical, viz. 6.7 

 for Rutland and 6.9 for the Isle. The difference of agricultural 

 populations is measured by the area under intensive cultivation. 

 The agricultural workers engaged on the 7,126 acres of fruit in the 

 Isle of Ely are almost as numerous as those engaged in doing all the 

 agricultural work of Rutland — say, about 2,000 as compared with 2,416. 



It may of course be true that a chance word, a common soldier, 

 a girl at the door of an inn, have changed, or almost changed, 

 the fate of nations, but it is probable that the genius of peoples 

 and the pressure of economic and social forces are more potent. Is 

 there then, it may be asked, any indication that the people of this 

 country will seek in intensive cultivation a means of colonising their 

 own land rather than continue to export their surplus man-power? 

 The problem is too complex and too subtle for me to solve, but I will 

 conclude by citing a curious fact which may have real significance in 

 indicating that if a nation so wills it may retain its surplus population 

 on the land by adjusting the intensity of its cultivation to the density of 

 its population. If a diagram be made combining the intensity of pro- 



