Chapter V: Food, I.—: Wheat.

I. Wheat—II. Free Trade and cheapness—III. Animal food—IV. Price of meat—V. The Free Breakfast Table—VI. Meat ration in the United Kingdom—VII. Agrarian policy—Back to the land—VIII. The profit of the few at the expense of the many—IX. Fiscal Reform and Colonial Markets—X. Profits to landlords—XI. Conclusions.

The memorandum drawn up by Sir Alfred Bateman, at the request of Mr. Chamberlain and his friends, gives three very instructive tables:—

These tables show a constant diminution in the proportion borne by home-grown wheat to our food supply. The only way to reverse this state of things would be to impose such a heavy tax on foreign corn that those who bought it would have to reduce their consumption about four-fifths.

Between 1898 and 1902 the United States were the chief source of our food supply. Mr. Chamberlain and his friends denounced this invasion by American corn, and demanded that the English market should be reserved for Canadian wheat. But since 1904, almost the day after Mr. Chamberlain and the other agrarians were thundering against the American Peril, the imports from the States fell from 60 to 15 per cent. of the whole. In 1904 the United Kingdom imported 118,000,000 cwt. of foodstuffs, of which the U.S.A. were only responsible for 18,500,000; their place was taken by India with 25,500,000 cwt.; Russia with 23,700,000, and Argentina with 21,800,000.

The following table, drawn up by Major Craigie, showing the various sources of English food supply during the last five years, proves the advantage which a country possesses when it can go to the world market for its provisions, and is not exposed to the variations of local harvests.

Sir Howard Vincent, the incarnation of all Protectionist prejudices, saw how large an area Canada occupies on the map, and on June 23, 1905, he said at the Imperial Industries Club, “Canada could produce 5 million quarters of wheat; it has 20 million acres of virgin soil capable of producing 25 bushels of wheat per acre.”

But as matter of fact, no more land is devoted to growing wheat in Canada than in the United Kingdom:—

It is not enough to have vast territories suitable for wheat-growing; to work them an adequate supply of men and capital is needed. The immense area of Canada produced in 1902, a year when the harvest was good, 9,875,000 imperial quarters; the little British Isles in the same year 7,285,000 quarters only 26 per cent. less.