Page:The Conquest of Bread (1906).djvu/301

 177 tons of hay to the 10 acres have been cropped, the yearly provender of 36 milch cows. Nearly nine acres per head of cattle are needed under the pasture system, and only 2 acres for 9 oxen or cows under the new system. These are the opposite extremes in modern agriculture.

In Guernsey, on a total of 9884 acres utilized, nearly half (4695 acres) are covered with cereals and kitchen-gardens; only 5189 acres remain as meadows. On these 5189 acres, 1480 horses, 7260 head of cattle, 900 sheep, and 4200 pigs are fed, which makes more than 3 head of cattle per 2 acres, without reckoning the sheep or the pigs. It is needless to add that the fertility of the soil is made by seaweed and chemical manures.

Returning to our 3 million inhabitants belonging to Paris and its environs, we see that the land necessary for the rearing of cattle comes down from 5 million acres to 197,000. Well, then, let us not stop at the lowest figures, let us take those of ordinary intensive culture; let us liberally add to the land necessary for smaller cattle which must replace some of the horned beasts and allow 395,000 acres for the rearing of cattle—494,000 if you like, on the 1,013,000 acres remaining after bread has been provided for the people.

Let us be generous and give 5 million work-days to put this land into a productive state.

After having therefore employed in the course of a year 20 million work-days, half of which are