Page:The New Protectionism.djvu/121

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THE CASE OF AGRICULTURE
97

agricultural reform is some not very marked reduction of our dependence upon overseas supplies. We cannot hope, with our great and still growing population, to be able in the future to feed ourselves in the event of a war in which we might be cut off from overseas supplies. Nor will considerations of defence encourage us to rely upon the Empire for all the surplus food-supplies we shall continue to require. For statistics show that even in recent years, with the immense development of Canadian resources, the Empire does not furnish us, in ordinary years, with much more than a third of the imported foods we require. The statistics of our imports of wheat and flour[1] show how precarious it would be for us to rely upon Imperial resources, which in a bad year cannot supply us with more than a quarter of our needs. The large number and variety of the foreign sources of supply upon which hitherto we have been drawing are seen to be the essential conditions of a

  1. ↑ See table on p. 98.
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