M.— AGRICULTURE. 231 



of living and to secure for them some of the benefits of civilisation. We, 

 then, as citizens, are bound to develop the Empire even for the sake only 

 of the native populations. Finally, we are trustees to the world in general 

 as custodians of so great a part of the world's wealth. 



The progress of civilisation depends upon science, not science stated 

 crudely as chemistry or botany, but the scientific spirit applied to all 

 aspects of life. If science is applied to the economics of the Empire, the 

 greatest economic asset to which it can be applied is agriculture. From 

 the standpoint of area, or wealth, or population employed, agriculture is 

 by far the most important activity in the Empire. The true wealth of 

 the world, the wealth which determines the standard of living of nations, 

 is limited by the capacity to produce cereals, milk, meat, wool, cotton, 

 hides, and other prime necessities of life of soil origin ; without a sufficient 

 supply of these progress in the art of living is impossible. Agriculture is 

 also the one stable industry. Coal seams come to an end, or the discovery 

 of new sources of energy changes the values of coal. Advances in physical 

 science may, while creating new industries, destroy old ones. The wealth 

 of gold and diamond fields depends upon artificial values which might 

 disappear if society were constituted on a new basis with a different 

 monetary system and different culture. But agricultural wealth, the 

 capacity to produce every year the food and clothing without which 

 life ends, is and always has been the one great permanent industry, the 

 one which is the foundation of all national or indeed of world wealth. 



The Extent of Empire Agriculture. 



The British Dominions, India and the Colonies cover 24 per cent., or 

 nearly one-quarter of the globe, and they contain 24 per cent., or 

 nearly one-quarter of the world's population. 



Of this immense area no precise measure of the full extent of land in 

 agricultural use is available, but the proportion is small. The most 

 intensively cultivated of the larger areas is India, the least intensively 

 cultivated is Australia. (See Table I.) In the aggregate only 8-7 per 

 cent, of the total land surface of Canada, India, the Union of South Africa, 

 Australia, and New Zealand is under arable cultivation. Only about one 

 acre in every hundred of Australia is under cultivated crops, about two 

 and a half acres in Canada, and three acres in South Africa and New 

 Zealand respectively. It is difficult to obtain figures indicative of the 

 possibilities of the tropical and sub-tropical territories, but the African 

 possessions alone are capable of enormously increased production. 



In the nine provinces of Canada the ' possible farmland ' is 358 million 

 acres, or about one-quarter of the total land area of the provinces, and 

 five and a half times the present total of both arable and pasture. lu 

 India, the most intensively cultivated, it is estimated that the cultivable 

 waste land is equal to half the present cultivated area, or about 153 

 million acres. 



Some evidence of the importance of the grasslands of the Emj)ire is 

 obtainable from the numbers of the world's live stock. (See Table II.) 

 Of every hundred head of cattle in the world, forty-four graze on Empire 

 pastures, and of every hundred sheep, thirty-eight are in the Empire. 

 Australia and New Zealand together own approximately as many sheep 



