394 



The Future of British Agriculture. [Aug., 



power to support or employ a portion of the population reduced? 

 In the main, it is because we have had to turn from arable 

 farming to grass farming. I do not believe that the paramount 

 urban interests would tolerate, for any length of time, an agri- 

 cultural system which, on any extended scale, sought salvation 

 in the conversion of tillage to grass, and the consequent reduc- 

 tion in output of food and employment. 



The farmer's answer is simple. He says that, as a matter 

 of business, arable farming cannot be made to pay; cheapness 

 of food is incompatible with large production. A serious ques- 

 tion arises. Will the ill-informed opinion of the towns have 

 patience to wait, while inquirers in every branch of science 

 collaborate with practical farmers to make tillage a business 

 proposition, that is to say, to make it show profits? I think it 

 will. The mass of the community are aware that, whatever 

 changes are introduced, the economic problem of making tillage 

 pay remains to be solved. If they see that a real, practical, 

 combined effort is being made in this direction, they will give 

 the requisite time. But the effort must be made. 



Economic science will deal with the reduction of expenses 

 to the minimum consistent with efficiency. To other branches 

 of scientific inquiry we look for those increased yields from the 

 soil, without a proportionate increase in the cost of production, 

 which will give a margin of profit. So I reach my second 

 reason for my faith in arable farming, namely, that tillage is 

 the direction in which science seems to be moving all along 

 the line, and that tillage is the branch of the agricultural 

 industry which can benefit to the fullest extent, and over the 

 widest field, by scientific developments. 



Even with our present scientific resources, the prospect is 

 encouraging. Over the whole range of plant-production on the 

 farm there exist the widest differences between the exceptional 

 and the average yields. In potatoes, for instance, the decennial 

 average yield is not much over 6 tons to the acre. I do not 

 know the highest recorded yield. But in 1918, on freshly 

 broken pasture-land, 18 tons were raised to the acre. Or take 

 mangolds. The average yield per acre is 19 J tons. On an acre 

 of newly broken pasture in 1918, 47 tons were grown. Or 

 take the three cereals, wheat, barley and oats. The average 

 yield of wheat is 31 bushels to the acre; the highest recorded 

 yield is 97 bushels. Of barley the average yield is 32 bushels, 

 and the highest recorded yield is 80 bushels. Of oats the 

 average yield is 40 bushels, and the highest recorded yield is 



