134 Our National Food Supply. [may, 



changes in agriculture. From the productivity point of view 

 1872 represents about the high- water mark of British farming. 

 At that time in England and Wales there were nearly 15,000,000 

 acres under the plough ; by 1914 that figure had fallen to less 

 than 11,000,000 — by 26 per cent. — and the wheat acreage had 

 dropped from 3,500,000 to about 1,800,000. Nearly 4,000,000 

 acres of land had been put down to grass, and carried cattle 

 and milch cows instead of growing crops. 



From the point of view of food supply, the meat and milk 

 produce from grass land do not make up for the crops that might 

 otherwise have been grown. This is a cardinal factor to bear 

 in mind in connection with the national food supply. 



Grass land is comparatively unproductive of food as compared 

 with arable land. There are two reasons for this. In the first 

 place, on the uncultivated grass land there is actually a smaller 

 production even of cattle food. On average land three times 

 as much cattle food can be grown as would be produced by the 

 uncultivated grass land upon a similar area. Secondly, the 

 production of meat, milk and all animal products involves a 

 great loss of absolute food. The animal is an indifferent con- 

 verter of the material grown by the land. The pig is the best 

 converter amongst animals, but even a pig will consume 7 lb. 

 of barley meal in order to produce a pound of pork, and the 

 pound of pork does not contain as much human food as the pound 

 of meal. Of course the cattle can utilise a great many coarse 

 fodders and waste produce which are unsuitable for human 

 consumption. But none the less they are consumers of the 

 products of land which might have been growing something 

 hke ten times as much human food of a vegetable character. 



When a population is driven to subsist on or near the mini- 

 mum it must become increasingly vegetarian in its diet. 



Amongst the animads the pig is the best converter ; milch 

 cows come next, then sheep, while the manufacture of beef is 

 the most wasteful of all. 



The superior power of arable land to maintain human beings 

 is illustrated by Sir Thomas Middleton's calculation that 100 

 acres of arable land in this country is normally producing food 

 that will maintain 84 persons, whereas the same 100 acres under 

 grass is only maintaining from 15 to 20 persons.* 



In the face of these facts, why not at once put all the land under 

 the plough ? That was the line of policy of the Food Produc- 



t This subject was dealt with in an article *' Farming in the United Kingdom 

 in Peace and War: the Plough Policy and its Results," by Sir Thomas 

 Middleton ; see this Journal, March, 1920, p. T192. 



