A writer in the Times, who has, at all events,
studied the statistics of the question, states his belief, founded on experi- ments, that the wheat yield this year will be about the average, that is, 27 bushels to the acre all round, good and bad land included. Last year there were 3,700,000 acres under wheat, and if the quantity has not been greatly altered the yield of the year will be 12,487,000 quarters. The people, however, require .5*. bushels a head a year, and as their number will this year be 31,000,000, they will want 21* million quarters. Add to this 1,000,000 quarters for seed, at 2-1- bushels to the acre, and we shall want 9* million quarters from abroad, costing us at the very least, £19,000,000, and more probably £21,500,000. In fact, we buy half the corn we eat, and as population increases, while land is limited, the proportion will become greater. If permanent peace were certain, or if the English-speaking peoples were so united as to rule the ocean, it would pay us to turn the United Kingdom into a vast grazing farm, and grow no -corn at all.
Previous page
