F.— ECONOMICS. 148 
The first section of this table shows at four successive epochs—1880, 
1890, 1900, 1910—the total yield and acreage of corn and the yield per 
acre and per head of population in Europe as a whole (including Britain), 
with corresponding figures for coal, iron ore, and steel. The second 
section gives corresponding facts for the principal countries settled from 
Europe—-Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Canada, and parts 
of South America. The third section covers Europe and its settlements 
together, practically the whole of the ‘ white man’s countries.’ The 
figures for each epoch represent an average of years, generally six, 
centering about the end of the year named. The records are not abso- 
lutely complete; one or two small European countries have been left 
out altogether; one or two gaps at the earlier epochs have to be filled 
by estimate or interpolation. The substantial accuracy of the main 
results is beyond question. 
The European section shows at each successive epoch a greatly 
increased population and acreage under corn, and a production increasing 
faster than either, so that yield per head and yield per acre alike both 
rise materially and steadily. Nature’s response to human effort in 
agriculture, on each unit of soil and for each unit of total population 
in Europe, has increased, not diminished, up to the very eve of the 
War. Needless to say, this greater production of corn has not been 
due to a shifting of population from industry to agriculture, and has 
not been offset by a decline of manufacturing. The general movement 
of population has probably been in the opposite direction, from agricul- 
ture to industry; the output of coal, iron ore, and steel, the basio 
materials and products of industry, has risen yet more rapidly than 
the output of corn. 
There is no trace of reaction, either in industry or in agriculture, 
in the last ten years of the table; nothing to suggest a turning-point at 
1900. It is true that the rate of increase in the yield of corn per head 
and per acre from 1900 to 1910 is less than in the preceding decade, 
but it is as great as in the decade from 1880 to 1890. In any case, a 
slowing down in the rate of increase proves nothing. Corn is produced 
only to be consumed, and there is a limit to consumption. In 
the best and most progressive of all possible worlds, the consumption, 
and so the production, per head of wheat, rye, barley, and maize could 
not rise endlessly; when saturation-point had been reached the yield 
per head of these elementary necessaries would cease to rise, and the 
people would use their increasing powers over Nature to win luxuries 
and leisure. Something of this movement is already seen in the growth 
of wheat at the expense of rye between 1900 and 1910. 
_ The second section of the table, covering the countries settled from 
Europe, begins only in 1890, but can be continued to-1920. It shows 
a very similar picture, not a markedly better one, in agriculture up to 
the War. From 1890 to 1910 the yield per acre of wheat has increased 
in the settlements a litile faster than in Europe (15 against 124 per 
cent,), but that of all crops taken together has increased more slowly 
(4 against 18 per cent.). The yield per head has also increased for 
wheat a little faster in the settlements than in Europe (25 against 
19 per cent.), and for all crops a little more slowly (11 against 121 per 
1993 i 
