Page:Agricultural Progress - Drainage.djvu/8

 a time when almost every nation is competing in the race to secure bread-food, and when prices of corn are excessively high, it may not be unprofitable to glance at some of the means by which the food-produce of England may be increased.

The subject may seem unimportant to many, as it may be reasonably inferred, from the fact of this country being dependent on foreign supplies to the extent of nearly one-third of its entire consumption, that its agricultural resources are developed to their utmost limits. While the premises are true, the inference is groundless. The actual condition of English agriculture reveals a widely different state of matters. In the northern counties of England, in Devonshire, and in Wales, there are at least 2,000,000 of acres of mountain land now almost valueless, but which, at a comparatively trifling cost, could be made to yield rich pastures. A very large breadth of moor and forest land contributes almost nothing