Lord George Bentinck | Page 8

without
evasion; nor was there any portion of his address more interesting,
more satisfactory, and more successful. 'I now come,' he said, 'to the
great challenge, which is ever and anon put forth by the Anti-Corn Law
League, and now by their disciples, her Majesty's ministers. How are
we, they ask, with our limited extent of territory, to feed a population
annually and rapidly increasing at the rate of three hundred thousand
a-year, as generally stated by the member for Stockport--a rate
increased by my noble friend, the member for the West Riding, to a
thousand a day, or three hundred and sixty-five thousand a year?'
He first proved in a complete manner that, from the year 1821 to the
year 1844, the population of the country had increased at the rate of
less than thirty-two per cent., while the growth of wheat during the
same period had increased no less than sixty-four per cent. He then
proceeded to inquire why, with such an increased produce, we were
still, as regards bread corn, to a certain extent, an importing nation?
This he accounted for by the universally improved condition of the
people, and the enlarged command of food by the working classes. He
drew an animated picture, founded entirely on the representations of
writers and public men adverse to the Protective System, of the
superior condition of the people of 'England, happy England,' to that of
other countries: how they consumed much more of the best food, and
lived much longer. This was under Protection, which Lord John Russell
had stigmatized, in his letter, 'the bane of agriculture.' 'In the history of
my noble friend's illustrious family,' he continued, 'I should have
thought that he would have found a remarkable refutation of such a
notion.' And then he drew a lively sketch of the colossal and patriotic
works of the Earls and Dukes of Bedford, 'whereby they had drained
and reclaimed three hundred thousand acres of land drowned in water,
and brought them into cultivation, and thus converted into fertile fields
a vast morass extending over seven counties in England.' Could the
system which had inspired such enterprise be justly denounced as
baneful?
To show the means of the country to sustain even a much-increasing

population, and that those means were in operation, he entered into one
of the most original and interesting calculations that was perhaps ever
offered to the House of Commons. Reminding the House that in the
preceding year (1845) the farmers of England, at a cost of two millions
sterling, had imported two hundred and eighty thousand tons of guano,
he proceeded to estimate what would be the effect on the productive
powers of the land of that novel application. Two hundred thousand
tons, or, in other words, four million hundred-weight, were expended
on the land in 1845. Half of these, he assumed, would be applied to the
growth of wheat, and the other half to the growth of turnips preparatory
to the wheat crop of the ensuing year. According to the experiments
tried and recorded in the Royal Agricultural Journal, it would seem that
by the application of two hundred-weight of guano to an acre of wheat
land, the produce would be increased by one quarter per acre. At this
rate, one hundred thousand tons, or two million hundred-weight of
guano would add one million quarters of wheat to the crop, or bread for
one year for one million of people. But as he was very careful never to
over-state a case, Lord George assumed, that it would require three
hundred hundredweight of guano to an acre to produce an extra quarter
of wheat. According to this estimate, one hundred thousand tons of
guano, applied to the land in 1845, must have added six hundred and
sixty-six thousand six hundred and sixty-six quarters of grain to the
wheat crop, or, in other words, bread for six hundred and sixty-six
thousand six hundred and sixty-six additional mouths. 'And now for
turnips,' he continued. The Norfolk authorities whom he quoted have in
like manner proved that two hundred-weight of guano will add ten tons
per acre to the turnip crop. But again, for fear of exaggeration, he
supposed that three hundred-weight would be requisite to create such
increased fertility. In this case, two million hundredweight of guano
would add six million six hundred and sixty-six thousand six hundred
and sixty tons to the natural unmanured produce of the crop. Now it is
generally considered that one ton of Swedes would last twenty sheep
three weeks, and that each sheep should gain half a pound of meat per
week, or one pound and a half in three weeks; thus twenty sheep
feeding on one ton of turnips in three weeks should in the aggregate
make, as the graziers say,