Impediments to Agricultural Progress 



123 



and nominal low pay (though really high) to a 

 better style of work and proportionate high 

 pay. As a help to this desired improvement 

 it has been propose(})/by some that the men 

 should, in addition ' to their earnings, each 

 have a small farm of 3 or 4 acres, if possible, 

 of pasture land. On this subject 1 wish to 

 speak with deference, because the plan is ad- 

 vocated by some for whom we all have a sin- 

 cere respect, and with whom we agree in tlie 

 desire to farther the well-being of our fellow- 

 men, though differing in the mode of obtain- 

 ing that object. This plan, however, could 

 only be carried out in certain localities where 

 the nature of the land was favourable, and if 

 introduced on a large scale it would cause a 

 financial difficulty in providing capiuil for 

 these small farms, as, on a moderate calcula- 

 tion, if a farm of 400 acres requires £,Z an 

 acre capital, a larm of 4 acres would want 

 ^12 ; and this extra money would have to 

 come from other sources than that now em- 

 ployed in farming. 



SOCIAL IMPEDIMENTS TO AGRICULTURE. 



Among the social impediments to ngricul- 

 ture may be reckoned these : some landed es- 

 tates being used more or less for other pur- 

 poses, such as sporting, farming being a 

 secondary consideration, or social position 

 and political influence being most thought of ; 

 on other estates the cultivators are so re- 

 stricted by agreements (the reverse of liberal) 

 that they amount to a preventive of good hus- 

 bandry. Another hindrance is, many pro- 

 perties are unduly hampered by settlements 

 which cause the owner in' possession to be 

 merely an annuitant or life holder, and as 

 such having but little inducement to im^/rove 

 the property. When an estate is hampered 

 by debt as well as settlement, the evil is in- 

 creased. 



FINANCIAL IMPEDIMENTS. 



The financial impediments to progress are 

 many. To begin with : the returns or profits 

 of farming are perhaps the most various and 

 uncertain of any regular occupation. There 

 are many farms carried on for years without 

 any profit, such as in the case of well-to-do 



families who do not like to give up a place 

 which may have been for generations occu- 

 pied or owned by their ancestors. Other 

 people continue to occupy land for the sake 

 of country sporting life, and from various 

 causes a considerable proportion of land 

 is farmed for other purposes than simply to 

 make an income, and thus the acreage is less 

 for those whose object it is to get a living by 

 farming. One great reejuisite is, how to 

 apply more capital to the land with judi- 

 cious security for reaping the benefit of the 

 same ; and with all our skill, capital, and 

 industry, failure often follows from causes 

 over which we have no control. In no other 

 occupation does a man put himself and his 

 property into the power of another so much 

 as a tenant-farmer who is without a long 

 lease or covenants for unexhausted improve- 

 ments, and this has a tendency to drive 

 active-minded men into mercantile or pro- 

 fessional pursuits. Perhaps it will not be 

 out of place to mention here the opinion of 

 a man who, both owning and farming, is well 

 qualified to give a good one, though it may 

 seem starding to us. He said the day was 

 coming, or would come, when in England no 

 farming would pay, but such high farming 

 requiring so large a capital that no one would 

 expend it on another's land, except on leases 

 answering in some respects to building 

 leases common in towns, and for a long 

 term of years. To obviate the difficulty 

 caused by the want of security of capital 

 applied to land, much may be done by 

 farmers themselves, for a large proportion of 

 owners are or would be willing to come to 

 terms with tenants desirous of improving 

 their farms; a liberal spirit on the one side 

 would, it is to be hoped, be met with the 

 like on the other side. But on estates where 

 the owner does not or cannot make the out- 

 lay, the law should protect the tenant who 

 invests his own money in improvement by 

 giving him legal claim upon the estate 

 for unexhausted improvements, so that when 

 he leaves or dies he or his family receives 

 what justly belongs to them. In Ireland 

 there is that legal Tenant-Right, and it is 

 equally required in all the British Islands. 



