[39] No less than 5,877,000 cwts. of beef and mutton, 1,065,470 sheep and lambs, and 415,565 pieces of cattle were imported in 1895. In 1910 the first of these figures rose to 13,690,000 cwts. Altogether, it is calculated (_Statesman’s Year-book_, 1912) that, in 1910, 21 lb. of imported beef, 13½ lb. of imported mutton, and 7 lb. of other sorts of meat, per head of population, were retained for home consumption; in addition to 11 lb. of butter, 262 lb. of wheat, 25 lb. of flour, and 20 lb. of rice and rice-flour, imported. [40] Agricultural population (farmers and labourers) in England and Wales: 2,100,000 in 1861; 1,383,000 in 1884; 1,311,720 in 1891; 1,152,500 (including fishing population) in 1901. [41] Round the small hamlet where I stayed for two summers, there were: One farm, 370 acres, four labourers and two boys; another, about 300 acres, two men and two boys; a third, 800 acres, five men only and probably as many boys. In truth, the problem of cultivating the land with the least number of men has been solved in this spot by not cultivating at all as much as two-thirds of it. Since these lines were written, in 1890, a movement in favour of intensive market-gardening has begun in this country, and I read in November, 1909, that they were selling at the Covent Garden market asparagus that had been grown in South Devon in November. They begin also to grow early potatoes in Cornwall and Devon. Formerly, nobody thought of utilising this rich soil and warm climate for growing early vegetables. [42] _Land Problems and National Welfare_, London, 1911. [43] _Rural England_, two big volumes, London, 1902. [44] See H. Rider Haggard’s _Rural Denmark and its Lessons_, London, 1911, pp. 188-212. [45] The _Rothamstead Experiments_, 1888, by Professor W. Fream, p. 35 _seq._ It is well worth noting that Mr. Hall, who was the head of Rothamstead for many years, maintained from his own experience that growing wheat in England is more profitable than rearing live stock. The same opinion was often expressed by the experts whose testimonies are reproduced by Rider Haggard. In many places of his _Rural England_ one finds also a mention of high wheat crops, up to fifty-six bushels per acre, obtained in many places in this country. [46] The figures which I take for these calculations are given in _Agricultural Returns of the Board of Agriculture and Agricultural Statistics for 1911_, vol xlvi., pt. 1. They are as follows for the year 1910:-- Acres. Total area (Great Britain) 56,803,000 Uncultivable area 24,657,070 (23,680,000 in 1895) Cultivable area 32,145,930 Out of it, under the plough 14,668,890 Out of it, under permanent pasture 17,477,040