THE POSSIBILITIES OF AGRICULTURE--(_continued_).
The doctrine of Malthus--Progress in wheat-growing--East
Flanders--Channel Islands--Potato crops, past and
present--Irrigation--Major Hallet’s experiments--Planted wheat.
Few books have exercised so pernicious an influence upon the general
development of economic thought as Malthus’s _Essay on the Principle
of Population_ exercised for three consecutive generations. It
appeared at the right time, like all books which have had any
influence at all, and it summed up ideas already current in the
minds of the wealth-possessing minority. It was precisely when the
ideas of equality and liberty, awakened by the French and American
revolutions, were still permeating the minds of the poor, while the
richer classes had become tired of their amateur excursions into the
same domains, that Malthus came to assert, in reply to Godwin, that
no equality is possible; that the poverty of the many is not due to
institutions, but is a natural _law_. Population, he wrote, grows too
rapidly and the new-comers find no room at the feast of nature; and
that law cannot be altered by any change of institutions. He thus
gave to the rich a kind of scientific argument against the ideas of
equality; and we know that though all dominion is based upon force,
force itself begins to totter as soon as it is no longer supported by
a firm belief in its own rightfulness. As to the poorer classes--who
always feel the influence of ideas circulating at a given time
amid the wealthier classes--it deprived them of the very hope of
improvement; it made them sceptical as to the promises of the social
reformers; and to this day the most advanced reformers entertain
doubts as to the possibility of satisfying the needs of all, in case
there should be a claim for their satisfaction, and a temporary
welfare of the labourers resulted in a sudden increase of population.
Science, down to the present day, remains permeated with Malthus’s
teachings. Political economy continues to base its reasoning upon
a tacit admission of the impossibility of rapidly increasing the
productive powers of a nation, and of thus giving satisfaction to
all wants. This postulate stands, undiscussed, in the background
of whatever political economy, classical or socialist, has to say
about exchange-value, wages, sale of labour force, rent, exchange,
and consumption. Political economy never rises above the hypothesis
of a _limited and insufficient supply of the necessaries of life_;
it takes it for granted. And all theories connected with political
economy retain the same erroneous principle. Nearly all socialists,
too, admit the postulate. Nay, even in biology (so deeply interwoven
now with sociology) we have recently seen the theory of variability
of species borrowing a quite unexpected support from its having
been connected by Darwin and Wallace with Malthus’s fundamental
idea, that the natural resources must inevitably fail to supply the
means of existence for the rapidly multiplying animals and plants.
In short, we may say that the theory of Malthus, by shaping into a
pseudo-scientific form the secret desires of the wealth-possessing
classes, became the foundation of a whole system of practical
philosophy, which permeates the minds of both the educated and
uneducated, and reacts (as practical philosophy always does) upon the
theoretical philosophy of our century.
True, the formidable growth of the productive powers of man in the
industrial field, since he tamed steam and electricity, has somewhat
shaken Malthus’s doctrine. Industrial wealth _has_ grown at a rate
which no possible increase of population could attain, and it _can_
grow with still greater speed. But agriculture is still considered
a stronghold of the Malthusian pseudo-philosophy. The recent
achievements of agriculture and horticulture are not sufficiently
well known; and while our gardeners defy climate and latitude,
acclimatise sub-tropical plants, raise several crops a year instead
of one, and themselves make the soil they want for each special
culture, the economists nevertheless continue saying that the surface
of the soil is limited, and still more its productive powers; they
still maintain that a population which should double each thirty
years would soon be confronted by a lack of the necessaries of life!
* * * * *
A few data to illustrate what _can_ be obtained from the soil were
given in the preceding chapter. But the deeper one goes into the
subject, the more new and striking data does he discover, and the
more Malthus’s fears appear groundless.
To begin with an instance taken from culture in the open
field--namely, that of wheat--we come upon the following interesting
fact. While we are so often told that wheat-growing does not pay,
and England consequently reduces from year to year the area of its
wheat fields, the French peasants steadily increase the area under
wheat, and the greatest increase is due to those peasant families
which themselves cultivate the land they own. In the course of the
nineteenth century they have nearly doubled the area under wheat, as
well as the returns from each acre, so as to increase almost fourfold
the amount of wheat grown in France.[71]
At the same time the population has only increased by 41 per cent.,
so that the ratio of increase of the wheat crop has been six
times greater than the ratio of increase of population, although
agriculture has been hampered all the time by a series of serious
obstacles--taxation, military service, poverty of the peasantry, and
even, up to 1884, a severe prohibition of all sorts of association
among the peasants.[72] It must also be remarked that during
the same hundred years, and even within the last fifty years,
market-gardening, fruit-culture and culture for industrial purposes
have immensely developed in France; so that there would be no
exaggeration in saying that the French obtain now from their soil at
least six or seven times more than they obtained a hundred years ago.
The “means of existence” drawn from the soil have thus grown about
fifteen times quicker than the population.
But the ratio of progress in agriculture is still better seen from
the rise of the standard of requirement as regards cultivation of
land. Some thirty years ago the French considered a crop very good
when it yielded twenty-two bushels to the acre; but with the same
soil the present requirement is at least thirty-three bushels,
while in the best soils the crop is good only when it yields from
forty-three to forty-eight bushels, and occasionally the produce
is as much as fifty-five bushels to the acre.[73] There are whole
countries--Hesse, for example--which are satisfied only when the
_average_ crop attains thirty-seven bushels, or Denmark, where the
average crop (1908-1910) is forty-one bushels per acre (forty-four
bushels in 1910).[74] As to the experimental farms of Central France,
they produce from year to year, over large areas, forty-one bushels
to the acre; and a number of farms in Northern France regularly
yield, year after year, from fifty-five to sixty-eight bushels to the
acre. Occasionally even so much as eighty bushels have been obtained
upon limited areas under special care.[75] In fact, Prof. Grandeau
considers it proved that by combining a series of such operations
as the selection of seeds, sowing in rows, and proper manuring, the
crops can be largely increased over the best present average, while
the cost of production can be reduced by 50 per cent. by the use of
inexpensive machinery; to say nothing of costly machines, like the
steam digger, or the pulverisers which make the soil required for
each special culture. They are now occasionally resorted to here and
there, and they surely will come into general use as soon as humanity
feels the need of largely increasing its agricultural produce.
In fact, a considerable progress has already been realised in
French agriculture by labour-saving machinery during the last
twenty-five years; but there still remains an immense field for
further improvement. Thus, in 1908, France had already in use 25,000
harvesting machines and 1,200 binders as against 180 only of the
former and sixty of the second, which were used in 1882; but it is
calculated that no less than 375,000 more harvesting machines and
300,000 mowing machines are required to satisfy the needs of French
agriculture. The same must be said as regards the use of artificial
manure, irrigation, pumping machinery, and so on.
* * * * *
When we bear in mind the very unfavourable conditions in which
agriculture stands now all over the world, we must not expect to find
considerable progress in its methods realised over wide regions; we
must be satisfied with noting the advance accomplished in separate,
especially favoured spots, where, for one cause or another, the
tribute levied upon the agriculturist has not been so heavy as to
stop all possibility of progress.
One such example may be seen in the district of Saffelare in East
Flanders. Thirty years ago, on a territory of 37,000 acres, all
taken, a population of 30,000 inhabitants, all peasants, not only
used to find its food, but managed, moreover, to keep no less than
10,720 horned cattle, 3,800 sheep, 1,815 horses and 6,550 swine, to
grow flax, and to export various agricultural produce.[76] And during
the last thirty years it has continued steadily to increase its
exports of agricultural produce.
Another illustration of this sort may be taken from the Channel
Islands, whose inhabitants have happily not known the blessings of
Roman law and landlordism, as they still live under the common law
of Normandy. The small island of Jersey, eight miles long and less
than six miles wide, still remains a land of open-field culture;
but, although it comprises only 28,707 acres, rocks included, it
nourishes a population of about two inhabitants to each acre, or
1,300 inhabitants to the square mile, and there is not one writer
on agriculture who, after having paid a visit to this island, did
not praise the well-being of the Jersey peasants and the admirable
results which they obtain in their small farms of from five to twenty
acres--very often less than five acres--by means of a rational and
intensive culture.
Most of my readers will probably be astonished to learn that the soil
of Jersey, which consists of decomposed granite, with no organic
matter in it, is not at all of astonishing fertility, and that its
climate, though more sunny than the climate of these isles, offers
many drawbacks on account of the small amount of sun-heat during the
summer and of the cold winds in spring. But so it is in reality, and
at the beginning of the nineteenth century the inhabitants of Jersey
lived chiefly on imported food. (See Appendix L.) The successes
accomplished lately in Jersey are entirely due to the amount of
labour which a dense population is putting in the land; to a system
of land-tenure, land-transference and inheritance very different from
those which prevail elsewhere; to freedom from State taxation; and
to the fact that communal institutions have been maintained, down to
quite a recent period, while a number of communal habits and customs
of mutual support, derived therefrom, are alive to the present time.
As to the fertility of the soil, it is made partly by the sea-weeds
gathered free on the sea-coast, but chiefly by artificial manure
fabricated at Blaydon-on-Tyne, out of all sorts of refuse--inclusive
of bones shipped from Plevna and mummies of cats shipped from Egypt.
It is well known that for the last thirty years the Jersey peasants
and farmers have been growing early potatoes on a great scale, and
that in this line they have attained most satisfactory results. Their
chief aim being to have the potatoes out as early as possible, when
they fetch at the Jersey Weigh-Bridge as much as £17 and £20 the ton,
the digging out of potatoes begins, in the best sheltered places, as
early as the first days of May, or even at the end of April. Quite
a system of potato-culture, beginning with the selection of tubers,
the arrangements for making them germinate, the selection of properly
sheltered and well situated plots of ground, the choice of proper
manure, and ending with the box in which the potatoes germinate and
which has so many other useful applications,--quite a system of
culture has been worked out in the island for that purpose by the
collective intelligence of the peasants.[77]
In the last weeks of May and in June, when the export is at its
height, quite a fleet of steamers runs between the small island
of Jersey and various ports of England and Scotland. Every day
eight to ten steamers enter the harbour of St. Hélier, and in
twenty-four hours they are loaded with potatoes and steer for
London, Southampton, Liverpool, Newcastle, and Scotland. From 50,000
to 60,000 tons of potatoes, valued at from £260,000 to £500,000,
according to the year, are thus exported every summer; and, if the
local consumption be taken into account, we have at least 60,000 to
70,000 tons that are obtained, although no more than from 6,500 to
7,500 acres are given to all potato crops, early and late--early
potatoes, as is well known, never giving as heavy crops as the later
ones. Ten to eleven tons per acre is thus the average, while in this
country the average is only six tons per acre.
As soon as the potatoes are out, the second crop of mangold or of
“three months’ wheat” (a special variety of rapidly growing wheat)
is sown. Not one day is lost in putting it in. The potato-field may
consist of one or two acres only, but as soon as one-fourth part of
it is cleared of the potatoes it is sown with the second crop. One
may thus see a small field divided into four plots, three of which
are sown with wheat at five or six days’ distance from each other,
while on the fourth plot the potatoes are being dug out.
The admirable condition of the meadows and the grazing land in the
Channel Islands has often been described, and although the aggregate
area which is given in Jersey to green crops, grasses under rotation,
and permanent pasture--both for hay and grazing--is less than 11,000
acres, they keep in Jersey over 12,300 head of cattle and over 2,300
horses solely used for agriculture and breeding.
Moreover, about 100 bulls and 1,600 cows and heifers are exported
every year,[78] so that by this time, as was remarked in an American
paper, there are more Jersey cows in America than in Jersey Island.
Jersey milk and butter have a wide renown, as also the pears which
are grown in the open air, but each of which is protected on the tree
by a separate cap, and still more the fruit and vegetables which are
grown in the hothouses. In a word, it will suffice to say that on the
whole they obtain agricultural produce to the value of £50 to each
acre of the aggregate surface of the island.
* * * * *
Fifty pounds’ worth of agricultural produce from each acre of
the land is sufficiently good. But the more we study the modern
achievements of agriculture, the more we see that the limits
of productivity of the soil are not attained, even in Jersey.
New horizons are continually unveiled. For the last fifty years
science--especially chemistry--and mechanical skill have been
widening and extending the industrial powers of man upon organic
and inorganic dead matter. Prodigies have been achieved in that
direction. Now comes the turn of similar achievements with living
plants. Human skill in the treatment of living matter, and
science--in its branch dealing with living organisms--step in with
the intention of doing for the art of food-growing what mechanical
and chemical skill have done in the art of fashioning and shaping
metals, wood and the dead fibres of plants. Almost every year brings
some new, often unexpected improvement in the art of agriculture,
which for so many centuries had been dormant.
We just saw that while the average potato crop in the country is six
tons per acre, in Jersey it is nearly twice as big. But Mr. Knight,
whose name is well known to every horticulturist in this country, has
once dug out of his fields no less than 1,284 bushels of potatoes, or
thirty-four tons and nine cwts. in weight, on one single acre; and
at a recent competition in Minnesota 1,120 bushels, or thirty tons,
could be ascertained as having been grown on one acre.
These are undoubtedly extraordinary crops, but quite recently the
French Professor Aimé Girard undertook a series of experiments in
order to find out the best conditions for growing potatoes in his
country.[79] He did not care for show-crops obtained by means of
extravagant manuring, but carefully studied all conditions: the best
variety, the depth of tilling and planting, the distance between the
plants. Then he entered into correspondence with some 350 growers
in different parts of France, advised them by letters, and finally
induced them to experiment. Strictly following his instructions,
several of his correspondents made experiments on a small scale, and
they obtained--instead of the three tons which they were accustomed
to grow--such crops as would correspond to twenty and thirty-six tons
to the acre. Moreover, ninety growers experimented on fields more
than one-quarter of an acre in size, and more than twenty growers
made their experiments on larger areas of from three to twenty-eight
acres. The result was that _none of them obtained less than twelve
tons_ to the acre, while some obtained twenty tons, and the average
was, for the 110 growers, fourteen and a half tons per acre.
However, industry requires still heavier crops. Potatoes are largely
used in Germany and Belgium for distilleries; consequently, the
distillery owners try to obtain the greatest possible amounts of
starch from the acre. Extensive experiments have lately been made for
that purpose in Germany, and the crops were: Nine tons per acre for
the poor sorts, fourteen tons for the better ones, and thirty-two and
four-tenths tons for the best varieties of potatoes.
Three tons to the acre and more than thirty tons to the acre are thus
the ascertained limits; and one necessarily asks oneself: Which of
the two requires _less labour_ in tilling, planting, cultivating and
digging, and less expenditure in manure--thirty tons grown on ten
acres, or the same thirty tons grown on one acre or two? If labour
is of no consideration, while every penny spent in seeds and manure
is of great importance, as is unhappily very often the case with the
peasant--he will perforce choose the first method. But is it the most
economic?
* * * * *
Again, I just mentioned that in the Saffelare district and Jersey
they succeed in keeping one head of horned cattle to each acre of
green crops, meadows and pasture land, while elsewhere two or three
acres are required for the same purpose. But better results still can
be obtained by means of irrigation, either with sewage or even with
pure water. In England, farmers are contented with one and a half and
two tons of hay per acre, and in the part of Flanders just mentioned,
two and a half tons of hay to the acre are considered a fair crop.
But on the irrigated fields of the Vosges, the Vaucluse, etc., in
France, six tons of dry hay become the rule, even upon ungrateful
soil; and this means considerably more than the annual food of one
milch cow (which can be taken at a little less than five tons) grown
on each acre. All taken, the results of irrigation have proved so
satisfactory in France that during the years 1862-1882 no less than
1,355,000 acres of meadows have been irrigated,[80] which means that
the annual meat-food of at least 1,500,000 full-grown persons, or
more, has been added to the yearly income of the country; home-grown,
not imported. In fact, in the valley of the Seine, the value of the
land was doubled by irrigation; in the Saône valley it was increased
five times, and ten times in certain _landes_ of Brittany.[81]
The example of the Campine district, in Belgium, is classical. It was
a most unproductive territory--mere sand from the sea, blown into
irregular mounds which were only kept together by the roots of the
heath; the acre of it used to be sold, not rented, at from 5s. to 7s.
(15 to 20 francs per hectare). But now it is capable, thanks to the
work of the Flemish peasants and to irrigation, to produce the food
of one milch cow per acre--the dung of the cattle being utilised for
further improvements.
The irrigated meadows round Milan are another well-known example.
Nearly 22,000 acres are irrigated there with water derived from
the sewers of the city, and they yield crops of from eight to ten
tons of hay as a rule; occasionally some separate meadows will
yield the fabulous amount--fabulous to-day, but no longer fabulous
to-morrow--of eighteen tons of hay per acre, that is, the food of
nearly four cows to the acre, and nine times the yield of good
meadows in this country.[82] However, English readers need not go
so far as Milan for ascertaining the results of irrigation by sewer
water. They have several such examples in this country, in the
experiments of Sir John Lawes, and especially at Craigentinny, near
Edinburgh, where, to use Ronna’s words, “the growth of rye grass is
so activated that it attains its full development in one year instead
of in three to four years. Sown in August, it gives a first crop in
autumn, and then, beginning with next spring, a crop of four tons
to the acre is taken every month; which represents in the fourteen
months more than fifty-six tons (of green fodder) to the acre.”[83]
At Lodge Farm they grow forty to fifty-two tons of green crops per
acre, after the cereals, without new manuring. At Aldershot they
obtain excellent potato crops; and at Romford (Breton’s Farm) Colonel
Hope obtained, in 1871-1872, quite extravagant crops of various roots
and potatoes.[84]
It can thus be said that while at the present time we give two and
three acres for keeping one head of horned cattle, and only in a few
places one head of cattle is kept on each acre given to green crops,
meadows and pasture, man has already in irrigation (which very soon
repays when it is properly made) the possibility of keeping twice
and even thrice as many head of cattle to the acre over parts of his
territory. Moreover, the very heavy crops of roots which are now
obtained (seventy-five to 110 tons of beetroot to the acre are not
infrequent) give another powerful means for increasing the number of
cattle without taking the land from what is now given to the culture
of cereals.
* * * * *
Another new departure in agriculture, which is full of promises and
probably will upset many a current notion, must be mentioned in this
place. I mean the almost horticultural treatment of our corn crops,
which is widely practised in the far East, and begins to claim our
attention in Western Europe as well.
At the First International Exhibition, in 1851, Major Hallett, of
Manor House, Brighton, had a series of very interesting exhibits
which he described as “pedigree cereals.” By picking out the best
plants of his fields, and by submitting their descendants to a
careful selection from year to year, he had succeeded in producing
new prolific varieties of wheat and barley. Each grain of these
cereals, instead of giving only two to four ears, as is the usual
average in a corn-field, gave ten to twenty-five ears, and the best
ears, instead of carrying from sixty to sixty-eight grains, had an
average of nearly twice that number of grains.
In order to obtain such prolific varieties Major Hallett naturally
could not sow his picked grains broadcast; he planted them, each
separately, in rows, at distances of from ten to twelve inches from
each other. In this way he found that each grain, having full room
for what is called “tillering” (_tallage_ in French[85]), would
produce ten, fifteen, twenty-five, and even up to ninety and 100
ears, as the case may be; and as each ear would contain from 60
to 120 grains, crops of 500 to 2,500 grains, or more, could be
obtained from each separately planted grain. He even exhibited at
the Exeter meeting of the British Association three plants of wheat,
barley, and oats, each from a single grain, which had the following
number of stems: wheat, ninety-four stems; barley, 110 stems; oats,
eighty-seven stems.[86] The barley plant which had 110 stems thus
gave something like 5,000 to 6,000 grains from one single grain. A
careful drawing of that wonderful stubble was made by Major Hallett’s
daughter and circulated with his pamphlets.[87] Again, in 1876, a
wheat plant, with “105 heads growing on one root, on which more than
8,000 grains were growing at once,” was exhibited at the Maidstone
Farmers’ Club.[88]
Two different processes were thus involved in Hallett’s experiments:
a process of selection, in order to create new varieties of cereals,
similar to the breeding of new varieties of cattle; and a method
of immensely increasing the crop from each grain and from a given
area, by planting each seed separately and wide apart, so as to have
room for the full development of the young plant, which is usually
suffocated by its neighbours in our corn-fields.[89]
The double character of Major Hallett’s method--the breeding of
_new prolific varieties_, and the method of culture by _planting
the seeds wide apart_--seems, however, so far as I am entitled to
judge, to have been overlooked until quite lately. The method was
mostly judged upon its results; and when a farmer had experimented
upon “Hallett’s Wheat,” and found out that it was late in ripening
in his own locality, or gave a less perfect grain than some other
variety, he usually did not care more about the method.[90] However,
Major Hallett’s successes or non-successes in breeding such or
such varieties are quite distinct from what is to be said about the
method itself of selection, or the method of planting wheat seeds
wide apart. Varieties which were bred, and which I saw grown still
at Manor Farm, on the windy downs of Brighton may be, or may not be,
suitable to this or that locality. Latest physiological researches
give such an importance to evaporation in the bringing of cereals
to maturity that where evaporation is not so rapid as it is on the
Brighton Downs, other varieties must be resorted to and bred on
purpose.[91] I should also suggest that quite different wheats than
the English ought to be experimented upon for obtaining prolific
varieties; namely, the quickly-growing Norwegian wheat, the Jersey
“three months’ wheat,” or even Yakutsk barley, which matures with an
astonishing rapidity. And now that horticulturists, so experienced in
“breeding” and “crossing” as Vilmorin, Carter, Sherif, W. Saunders
in Canada and many others are, have taken the matter in hand, we
may feel sure that future progress will be made. But breeding is
one thing; and the planting wide apart of seeds of an appropriate
variety of wheat is quite another thing.
This last method was lately experimented upon by M. Grandeau,
Director of the Station Agronomique de l’Est, and by M. Florimond
Dessprèz at the experimental station of Capelle; and in both cases
the results were most remarkable. At this last station a method which
is in use in France for the choice of seeds was applied. Already
now some French farmers go over their wheat fields before the crop
begins, choose the soundest plants which bear two or three equally
strong stems, adorned with long ears, well stocked with grains, and
take these ears. Then they crop off with scissors the top and the
bottom of each ear and keep its middle part only, which contains
the biggest seeds. With a dozen quarts of such selected grains
they obtain next year the required quantity of seeds of a superior
quality.[92]
The same was done by M. Dessprèz. Then each seed was planted
separately, eight inches apart in a row, by means of a specially
devised tool, similar to the _rayonneur_ which is used for planting
potatoes; and the rows, also eight inches apart, were alternately
given to the big and to the smaller seeds. One-fourth part of an
acre having been planted in this way, with seeds obtained from both
early and late ears, crops corresponding to 83·8 bushels per acre
for the first series, and 90·4 bushels for the second series, were
obtained; even the small grains gave in this experiment as much as
70·2 and 62 bushels respectively.[93]
The crop was thus more than doubled by the choice of seeds and by
planting them separately eight inches apart. It corresponded in
Dessprèz’s experiments to _600 grains obtained on the average from
each grain sown_; and one-tenth or one-eleventh part of an acre was
sufficient in such case to grow the eight and a half bushels of wheat
which are required on the average for the annual bread food per head
of a population which would chiefly live on bread.
Prof. Grandeau, Director of the French Station Agronomique de l’Est,
has also made, since 1886, experiments on Major Hallett’s method,
and he obtained similar results. “In a proper soil,” he wrote, “one
single grain of wheat can give as much as fifty stems (and ears), and
even more, and thus cover a circle thirteen inches in diameter.”[94]
But as he seems to know how difficult it often is to convince people
of the plainest facts, he published the photographs of separate wheat
plants grown in different soils, differently manured, including pure
river sand enriched by manure.[95] He concluded that under proper
treatment 2,000 and even 4,000 grains could be easily obtained from
each planted grain. The seedlings, growing from grains planted ten
inches apart, cover the whole space, and the experimental plot
takes the aspect of an excellent cornfield, as may be seen from a
photograph given by Grandeau in his _Etudes agronomiques_.[96]
[Illustration: FIG. 4.--Wheat Plants. _a_, Has given 17 ears from
each planted grain. Soil manured with chemical manure only. _b_, Has
given 25 ears from each planted grain. Soil manured with both stable
and chemical manure.]
[Illustration: FIG. 5.--Squares at Professor Grandeau’s experimental
station, planted with grains of wheat, in three different soils: _a_,
pure sand; _b_ and _c_, manured arable soil; each grain 12 inches
apart.]
In fact, the eight and a half bushels required for one man’s annual
food were actually grown at the Tomblaine station on a surface of
2,250 square feet, or forty-seven feet square--that is, on very
nearly one-twentieth part of an acre.
Again, we may thus say, that where we require now three acres, one
acre would be sufficient for growing the same amount of food, if
planting wide apart were resorted to. And there is, surely, no more
objection to planting wheat than there is to sowing in rows, which
is now in general use, although at the time when the system was
first introduced, _in lieu_ of the formerly usual mode of sowing
broadcast, it certainly was met with great distrust. While the
Chinese and the Japanese used for centuries to sow wheat in rows,
by means of a bamboo tube adapted to the plough, European writers
objected, of course, to this method under the pretext that it would
require too much labour. It is the same now with planting each seed
apart. Professional writers sneer at it, although all the rice that
is grown in Japan is planted _and even replanted_. Everyone, however,
who will think of the labour which must be spent for ploughing,
harrowing, fencing, and keeping free of weeds three acres instead of
one, and who will calculate the corresponding expenditure in manure,
will surely admit that all advantages are in favour of the one acre
as against the three acres, to say nothing of the possibilities of
irrigation, or of the planting machine-tool, which will be devised
as soon as there is a demand for it.[97]
More than that, there is full reason to believe that even this
method is liable to further improvement by means of _replanting_.
Cereals in such cases would be treated as vegetables are treated in
horticulture. Such is, at least, the idea which began to germinate
since the methods of cereal culture that are resorted to in China and
Japan became better known in Europe. (See Appendix O.)
The future--a near future, I hope--will show what practical
importance such a method of treating cereals may have. But we need
not speculate about that future. We have already, in the facts
mentioned in this chapter, an experimental basis for quite a number
of means of improving our present methods of culture and of largely
increasing the crops. It is evident that in a book which is not
intended to be a manual of agriculture, all I can do is to give only
a few hints to set people thinking for themselves upon this subject.
But the little that has been said is sufficient to show that we have
no right to complain of over-population, and no need to fear it in
the future. Our means of obtaining from the soil whatever we want,
under _any_ climate and upon _any_ soil, have lately been improved
at such a rate that we cannot foresee yet what is the limit of
productivity of a few acres of land. The limit vanishes in proportion
to our better study of the subject, and every year makes it vanish
further and further from our sight.
FOOTNOTES:
[71] The researches of Tisserand may be summed up as follows:
+---------+----------+-----------+------------+-------------+
| |Population|Acres under|Average crop|Wheat crop in|
| Year. | in | wheat. | in bushels | bushels. |
| | millions.| | per acre. | |
+---------+----------+-----------+------------+-------------+
| 1789 | 27·0 | 9,884,000| 9 | 87,980,000 |
| 1831-41 | 33·4 | 13,224,000| 15 | 194,225,000 |
| 1882-88 | 38·2 | 17,198,000| 18 | 311,619,000 |
+---------+----------+-----------+------------+-------------+
[72] In a recent evaluation, M. Augé-Laribé (_L’évolution de la
France agricole_, Paris, 1912) arrives at the following figures:--
+--------+-----------------+
| Years. |Area under wheat.|
| | Acres. |
+--------+-----------------+
| 1862 | 18,430,000 |
| 1882 | 17,740,000 |
| 1892 | 17,690,000 |
| 1900 | 16,960,000 |
| 1910 | 16,190,000 |
+--------+-----------------+
The average crops for each ten years since 1834 are given as
follows:--
+----------+-----------------+
| Years. |Crops in bushels.|
+----------+-----------------+
| 1834-43 | 190,800,000 |
| 1856-65 | 272,900,000 |
| 1876-85 | 279,800,000 |
| 1884-95 | 294,700,000 |
| 1896-1905| 317,700,000 |
| 1906-09 | 333,400,000 |
+----------+-----------------+
The wheat crop has thus increased in seventy-five years by 74 per
cent., while the population increased only by 20 per cent. For
potatoes, the increase is still greater: while 198,800,000 cwt. of
potatoes were grown in 1882, the crop of 1909 was already 328,300,000
cwt., the average yield of the acre growing from 148 cwt. in 1882 to
212 cwt. in 1909.
[73] Grandeau, _Etudes agronomiques_, 2^e série. Paris, 1888.
[74] Although 36 per cent. of the cultivable area is under cereals,
there were in Denmark, in 1910, 2,253,980 head of cattle, as against
1,238,900 in 1871, and 1,470,100 in 1882.
[75] Risler, _Physiologie et Culture du Blé_. Paris, 1886. Taking the
whole of the wheat crop in France, we see that the following progress
has been realised. In 1872-1881 the average crop was 16½ bushels per
acre. In 1882-1890 it attained 17-9/10 bushels per acre. Increase by
14 per cent. in ten years (Prof. C. V. Garola, _Les Céréales_, p. 70
_seq._).
[76] O. de Kerchove de Denterghen, _La petite Culture des Flandres
belges_, Gand, 1878.
[77] One could not insist too much on the collective character of
the development of that branch of husbandry. In many places of the
South coast of England early potatoes can also be grown--to say
nothing of Cornwall and South Devon, where potatoes are obtained by
separate labourers in small quantities as early as they are obtained
in Jersey. But so long as this culture remains the work of isolated
growers, its results must necessarily be inferior to those which the
Jersey peasants obtain through their collective experience. For the
technical details concerning potato-culture in Jersey, see a paper
by a Jersey grower in the _Journal of Horticulture_, 22nd and 29th
May, 1890. Considerable progress has been made lately in Cornwall,
especially in the neighbourhood of Penzance, in the development of
potato-growing and intensive market-gardening, and one may hope that
the successes of these growers will incite others to imitate their
example.
[78] See Appendix L.
[79] See the _Annales agronomiques_ for 1892 and 1893; also _Journal
des Economistes_, février, 1893, p. 215.
[80] Barral in _Journal d’Agriculture pratique_, 2 février, 1889;
Boitel, _Herbages et Prairies naturelles_, Paris, 1887.
[81] The increase of the crops due to irrigation is most instructive.
In the most unproductive Sologne, irrigation has increased the hay
crop from two tons per hectare (two and a half acres) to eight tons;
in the Vendée, from four tons of bad hay to ten tons of excellent
hay. In the Ain, M. Puris, having spent 19,000 francs for irrigating
ninety-two and a half hectares (about £2 10s. per acre), obtained an
increase of 207 tons of excellent hay. In the south of France, a net
increase of over four bushels of wheat per acre is easily obtained
by irrigation; while for market gardening the increase was found
to attain £30 to £40 per acre. (See H. Sagnier, “Irrigation,” in
Barral’s _Dictionnaire d’Agriculture_, vol. iii., p. 339.) I hardly
need mention the striking results obtained lately by irrigation in
Egypt and on the dry plateaus of the United States.
[82] _Dictionnaire d’Agriculture_, same article. See also Appendix M.
[83] Ronna, _Les Irrigations_, vol. iii., p. 67. Paris, 1890.
[84] Prof. Ronna gives the following figures of crops per acre:
Twenty-eight tons of potatoes, sixteen tons of mangolds, 105 tons of
beet, 110 tons of carrots, nine to twenty tons of various cabbage,
and so on.--Most remarkable results seem also to have been obtained
by M. Goppart, by growing green fodder for ensilage. See his work,
_Manuel de la Culture des Maïs et autres Fourrages verts_, Paris,
1877.
[85] “Shortly after the plant appears above ground it commences to
throw out new and distinct stems, upon the first appearance of which
a correspondent root-bud is developed for its support; and while
the new stems grow out flat over the surface of the soil, their
respective roots assume a corresponding development beneath it. This
process, called ‘tillering,’ will continue until the season arrives
for the stems to assume an upright growth.” The less the roots have
been interfered with by overcrowding the better will be the ears
(Major Hallett, “Thin Seeding,” etc.).
[86] Paper on “Thin Seeding and the Selection of Seed,” read before
the Midland Farmers’ Club, 4th June, 1874.
[87] “Pedigree Cereals,” 1889. Paper on “Thin Seeding,” etc., just
mentioned. Abstracts from _The Times_, etc., 1862. Major Hallett
contributed, moreover, several papers to the _Journal of the Royal
Agricultural Society_, and one to _The Nineteenth Century_.
[88] _Agricultural Gazette_, 3rd January, 1876. Ninety ears, some of
which contained as many as 132 grains each, were also obtained in New
Zealand.
[89] It appears from many different experiments (mentioned in Prof.
Garola’s excellent work, _Les Céréales_, Paris, 1892) that when
tested seeds (of which no more than 6 per cent. are lost on sowing)
are sown broadcast, to the amount of 500 seeds per square metre (a
little more than one square yard), _only 148 of them give plants_.
Each plant gives in such case from two to four stems and from two to
four ears; but nearly 360 seeds are entirely lost. When sown in rows,
the loss is not so great, but it is still considerable.
[90] See Prof. Garola’s remarks on “Hallett’s Wheat,” which, by the
way, seems to be well known to farmers in France and Germany (_Les
Céréales_, p. 337).
[91] Besides, Hallett’s wheat must not be sown later than the first
week of September. Those who may try experiments with planted wheat
must be especially careful to make the experiments in open fields,
not in a back garden, and to sow early.
[92] Upon this method of selecting seeds opinions are, however, at
variance amongst agriculturists.
[93] The straw was eighty-three and seventy-seven cwts. per acre in
the first case; fifty-nine and forty-nine cwts. in the second case
(Garola, _Les Céréales_). In his above-mentioned paper on “Thin
Seeding,” Major Hallett mentions a crop at the rate of 108 bushels to
the acre, obtained by planting nine inches apart.
[94] L. Grandeau, _Etudes agronomiques_, 3^e série, 1887-1888, p. 43.
This series is still continued by one volume every year.
[95] On one of these photographs one sees that in a soil improved by
chemical manure only, seventeen stems from each grain are obtained;
with organic manure added to the former, twenty-five stems were
obtained.
[96] Most interesting experiments for obtaining new sorts of wheat,
combining the qualities of Canadian wheat with those of the best
British sorts, are being carried on now at the Cambridge University.
Similar experiments have been made in Germany by F. von Lochow, at
Petkno, in order to produce new races of rye rich in gluten and
prolific. These last experiments were made on Mr. Hallett’s method,
and the results were satisfactory, as it appears from a report
published in Fuehling’s _Landwirthschaftliche Zeitung_, Leipzig,
January and February, 1900, pp. 29 and 45.
[97] See Appendix N.