Page:Agricultural Progress - Drainage.djvu/9

 for the support, of man; while, in not a few districts, one-fifth of the total area is occupied by superfluous and irregular fences.

The evil of not rendering such vast resources profitable is magnified by the fact of the increase of the means of subsistence not keeping pace with the increase of population. The increasing disparity between consumption and production, indeed, imparts to the subject a grave feature, as it anticipates higher prices, and an increasing dependence on foreign aid.

Taking the increase of population at the same ratio now as it was from 1851 to 1861, the number of persons annually added to the population is about 240,000. To meet the wants of this increase of population, and estimating the average expenditure of each individual for bread-food, potatoes, and butcher's meat to be £10 per annum, an annual increase of food-produce to the value of £2,400,000 is required. To what extent our native powers of production may be developed to meet this increasing consumption I do not now inquire; but, as the heading of this communication indicates, will shortly notice what may be done in England—without reference to Scotland—by the drainage of the cultivated area—arable, meadow, and improved pasture—alone.

But for the evidence of the fact itself, it would not be credited that one-fifth of the cultivated area is still undrained. Cheshire, with its red marl soil—rich in quality and of great surface depth, is not more than half drained; Durham, with