AGEICULTUEAL DEPKESSION, 1873 TO 1887 123 



tion by the shifting of capital, diminution of foreign 

 competition, adjustment of standards of living to decreased 

 incomes, restored courage, and the adaptation of farming 

 practices to new requirements. 



Recent seasons proved less inclement, and trade less 

 languid ; but two of the jDriucipal causes of the crisis 

 operate with scarcely diminished force. Foreign supplies 

 pour into the country in increasing volume.^ Agriculture 

 bears upon its face every sign of a depressed industry. 

 The soil remains weakly farmed, undermanned and under- 

 stocked, partly because capital has dwindled, partly because 

 of the ravages of cattle disease, partly because farmers are 

 compelled to realise something, even if sales are premature. 

 Land is going back ; it is falling out of condition, if not 

 out of cultivation, and farmers are too poor, too weak, and 

 dispirited to restore or maintain it. Its produce per acre 

 is diminishing, and the number of sheep has decreased by 

 more than two million since 1875.^ High farming at pre- 

 sent prices appears waste of money ; agriculture cannot 

 hold its own by intension against extension. The progress 

 of centuries seems thrown away ; the instrument becomes 

 useless just when it is ]3erfected and able to double the 

 existing produce of the soil. From every point of view 

 but the fanner's, the brightest spot in the general gloom 

 is the cheapness of food. Free trade has at least secured 

 the country from the horrors of famine. 



In the face of past losses and present prices landlords 

 have reduced their rentals to little more than the amount 

 which they reached in 1836. And still ' Let the landlords 

 come down with the rents," in the apprehension of many, 

 solves every difficulty and closes every argument. Not 



* The growth of this prodigious trade from 1866 is shown in Appendix IX. 

 - See Appendix X., Statistics of Agriculture, 1867-87. 



