8 COMPETITION FOR FAEMS 



from the continued competition for its possession. He has 

 not only to meet his own class, a necessarily increasing body, 

 in this competition, but to contend with men who, having made 

 money in other pursuits, wish to retire to the more pleasurable 

 occupations of a country life. It is this competition which is 

 the true cause of the reduced profits of farming, and this is 

 more likely to increase than diminish. Great Britain is the 

 most attractive place of residence on the surface of the globe, 

 whether we regard its equable and healthy climate, its varied 

 scenery and field sports, the almost sacred character of the 

 rights of property in the eyes of its people, and the admirable 

 combination of liberty and order which is preserved under its 

 political constitution. Men will pay for these advantages, 

 when they can afford it, a price which is not measured by the 

 ordinary rates of profit. 



Besides this competition, which raises the rate of rent, the 

 farmer must now meet in his own market the produce of low- 

 er-priced foreign lands. He will, no doubt, always have the 

 cost of transport in his favour, and this would generally be suf- 

 ficient to balance the difference of rent ; but the land of this 

 country cannot be cultivated without manure, and the farmers 

 of those foreign countries whose soil is rich enough to yield 

 corn for many years without manure, are thereby able to 

 undersell the British producer in his own market. The cost 

 of labour when the value of food of the working stock is calcu- 

 lated, is nearly the same at home and abroad, and superior 

 fertility alone will be found to turn the advantage in favour of 

 the foreign producer. 



The special adaptation of Britain for the production of live 

 stock, and the constantly increasing demand for that branch of 

 the farmer's produce, have hitherto modified the effects of 

 foreign competition in corn. But even these, excellent though 

 they have proved, cannot permanently counteract the cause of 



