er. After the War the
financial question of the continued ability of the nation to pay for the
food we require is probably the most serious we have to face. The first
remedy for the existing state of things is the increase of tillage.
Assuming that the same pecuniary profit can be obtained by using any
land for tillage as for pasture or other purposes, it is obvious that it
is right to do everything possible to get that land devoted to tillage,
first, as national insurance for the reasons above stated, and, second,
to support a larger population under healthy conditions. One of the
great causes of discontent, of vagrancy, and of distress in the
sixteenth century was certainly the conversion of large tracts which had
formerly been arable into pasture land, because the land laid down as
pasture would produce a larger profit to the owner though it supported a
much smaller population and required far less labour. A considerable
portion of the rural population was thrown out of employment and the
supply of food was diminished. Again and again the decay of the
agricultural population has been the ground of complaint. Goldsmith
speaks of it beautifully and pathetically in the "Deserted Village," and
the process went on, becoming year after year a greater national peril;
but the Government and Parliament seemed to care little about it, so
that even during the last forty years, according to the statement of Sir
A.D. Hall, "the productivity of the land of Great Britain as a whole has
declined." Although a far larger rent might be obtained from the wealthy
who use a great part of Scotland for shooting than could be obtained
from crofters, national welfare demands that it should be used for
crofts and to raise the population which has supplied our armies with
many of the finest soldiers and the whole Empire with many of its best
colonists. Of course, there are large tracts of such a character that
people cannot support themselves in tolerable comfort by tilling them,
and it is better that land of that kind should be used for sheep if
possible, and, in cases where even this is impossible, for deer forests
or grouse moors, subject to reasonable public rights of access.

Among the measures which may be taken to increase the home production
of food the following may be mentioned:--

1.--_Improved farming or intensification of agriculture under the
existing system._ It is admitted that English, and perhaps still more
Scottish, farming