San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1888-08-17
FUTURE FOOD SUPPLY.
PRINCE KRAPOTKIN DlcUSSES THE
QUESTION At LENGTH.
Extracts from His Essay in The Nineteenth
Century-sIust Great Britain Starve?
Agriculture in Belgium-Results of
High Cultivation-The Orchard"

Century-Nust Great Britain Starve?
Agriculture in Belgium-Results Of
High CuItivation-The Orchard"
Great Britain now buys from foreign coun-
tries one-half of the food she eats, and pays
for it in manufactures What will she do
when other nations decline to buy the pro
duce of her looms and mills7 Must half her
people starves This is the question Prince
Klapotkin discusses:
SIS it possible that the soil Of the United
Kingdom, which at present yields food for
0ne-haif of its inhabitants, could provide all
the necessary amount and variety Of food for
100000 human beings, when it covers only
7S,000,0O0 acres all told-forests and rocks,
marshes and peat boys, cities, railways and
fields! The current opinion is that it by no
means can, and that opinion is so inveterate
that we even see scientist, like Mr. Huxley,
who is always so cautious when dealing with
current opinions in science, indOrse that
opinion without even taking the trouble Of
verifying it. 1t is accepted as an axiom.
And yet, as soon as we try to find out any
argument in its favor, we discover that it has
not the slightest foundation either in facts
or in judgment upon we'll known facts"
The prince thus compares the agriculture
Of Great Britain with that of Belgium:
Belgium also grows an average of p $40
bushels of wheat per acre, but her wheat
area is relatively twice as large as that Of the
United Kingdom; it covers one-eleventh part
of the cultivated area, one-twellth O.. the
aggregate territory Besides, Belgium cult
rates on a larger scale industrial plants, and
although she keeps the same amount of cattle
on the acre as the United Kingdom, her ag
gregate crops of cereals are five times larger
with regard to the cultivated area, and seven
times larger with regard to the aggregate
territory. As to those who will not fail to
say that the soil of Belgium is certainly more
fertile than that of this country, let me
answer, in the words of Laveleye, that only
one-half, or less, of the territory offers natu-
raj conditions which are favorable for agri-
culture;' the other half consists OF gravelly
soil, or sands, the natural sterility of which
could be overpowered only by heavy manur-
ing With this soil and labor, Belgium
succeeds in supplying nearly all the food
of population which is denser than chat of
England and Wales, and numbers 5l4 in
habitauts to the square mile. If the exports
of agricultural produce from Belgium be
taken into account, we can say that Lavel
eyes figures are still good, and that only one
inhabitant out of each twenty requires i'm
ported food. But even if we double his fig
ures we still find that the soil of Belgium
supplies with home grown food no less than
460 inhabitants per square mile
II might quote like examples from else
where. especially from Lombardy, without
even going as far as China. But the above
will be enough to caution the reader against
hasty conclusions as to the impossibility of
feeding 35,0OO,000 people from 7S,OOOOOO
acres. They also will enable me to draw the
following conclusions. IL If the soil of the
United Kingdom were cultivated only as it
was thirty years ago, "a, 100000 people, in
stead of 1000 900, could live on home grown
food and that culture, while giving occupa-
ton to at least 100000 men, would give
nearly 100000 wealthy home customers to
the British manufacturers. C2) If the 1890,
900 acres on which wheat was grown thirty
years ago-only these, and not more-were
cultivated as the fields are cultivated now in
England under the allotment system, which
gives on the average forty bushels per acre,
the United Kingdom would grow food for
27,O0O,000 inhabitants out of 3500O,OO0. g.
If the now cultivated area of the United
Kingdom $4,000 square miles were cult
waited as the soil is cultivated on the average
in Belgium, the United Kingdom would
have food for s., 600 inhabitants, and 1t
might export agricultural produce, without
ceasing to manufacture, so as freely to sup
ply all the needs of wealthy population
And finally AZ, if the population of this coun.
try came to be doubled, all that would be re-
quired for producing the food for 100000
inhabitants would be to cultivate the soil as
it is cultivated in the best farms OF this coun-
try, in Lombardy and in Flanders, and to
cultivate the meadows which at present lie
almost unproductive around big cities in the
same way as the neighborhood of Paris is
cultivated by the Paris maraichers."
But Prince Krapotkin goes farther, and
shows how, as population increases in den
sity, the command Of man over the produc-
tive power of the soil becomes proportion
ately greater, until it really seems impossible
to:Set limit to it. Here is his description of
q single marais, or orchard" near Paris:
"His orchard covers only 2 ITO acres. The
outlay for the establishment, including a
steam engine for watering purposes, reached
R1.l2a Eight. psEsonA q Ponce inelgiSd.