ccustomed to an omnivorous diet adopts a vegetarian regime, a
steadily growing refinement in taste and smell is experienced. Delicate
and subtle flavours, hitherto unnoticed, especially if the habit of
thorough mastication be practised, soon convince the neophyte that a
vegetarian is by no means denied the pleasure of gustatory enjoyment.
Further, not only are these senses better attuned and refined, but the
mind also undergoes a similar exaltation. Thoreau, the
transcendentalist, wrote: 'I believe that every man who has ever been
earnest to preserve his higher or poetic faculties in the best
condition, has been particularly inclined to abstain from animal food,
and from much food of any kind.'

V

ECONOMICAL CONSIDERATIONS

There is no doubt that the yield of land when utilized for pasturage is
less than what it will produce in the hands of the agriculturist. In a
thickly populated country, such as England, dependent under present
conditions on foreign countries for a large proportion of her food
supply, it is foolish, considering only the political aspects, to employ
the land for raising unnecessary flesh-food, and so be compelled to
apply to foreign markets for the first necessaries of life, when there
is, without doubt, sufficient agricultural land in England to support
the entire population on a vegetable regimen. As just said, a much
larger population can be supported on a given acreage cultivated with
vegetable produce than would be possible were the same land used for
grazing cattle. Lieut. Powell quotes Prof. Francis Newman of University
College, London, as declaring that--

100 acres devoted to sheep-raising will support 42 men: proportion
1.

100 acres devoted to dairy-farming will support 53 men: proportion
1-1/4.

100 acres devoted to wheat will support 250 men: proportion 6.

100 acres devoted to potato will support 683 men: proportion 16.

To produce the same quantity of food yielded by an acre of land
cultivated by the husbandman, three or four acres, or more, would be
required as grazing land to raise cattle for flesh meat.

Another point to note is that agriculture affords employment to a very
much larger number of men than cattle-raising; that is to say, a much
larger number of men are required to raise a given amount of vegetable
food than is required to raise the same amount of flesh food, and so,
were the present common omnivorous customs to give pla