SELF-HELP NOT PKOTECTION 221 



livestock breeding, rearing, and fatting, are the most 

 remunerative forms in which tenant farmers can employ 

 their capital. Nor is it only to this or that side of the 

 country that mixed farming is suited. It is sometimes 

 said that one district grows wheat, another dairies, accord- 

 ing to the value of the soil. But the example of France is 

 not required to prove that stock may be bred and reared, 

 and cheese and butter made, on arable land. Dairying is 

 more a question of markets than of soil. It is true that 

 the butter made in the rich pastures of Gournay and Isigny 

 fetches from 2s. 6d. to 3s. 6d. a pound in the Paris mar- 

 kets ; but much of that which competes in English markets 

 is produced on cultivated lands by the yield of tares, clover 

 roots, rye, and oats. Varied husbandry pays on light, 

 shallow soils which will not produce a permanent grass. 

 It employs more labour than land which is laid down per- 

 manently to grass. It also saves expenses both of men and 

 horses, because it diminishes the area under the plough, by 

 substituting for three-fourths of the arable portion a three or 

 four years' lea, which may be grazed or cut for hay. The sys- 

 tem of rotation and temporary grass which it adoj)ts costs less 

 in seeds than permanent pasture, and may be reconverted to 

 tillage whenever necessary. It restores the fertility of 

 arable soil, because it gives time for the vegetable matter to 

 accumulate. It supplies fodder-crops, which in dry seasons 

 like 1887, are the saving of stock-breeders and dairymen. It 

 secures more profits from breeders and dealers, because more 

 stock is reared at home and fewer 'stores' are purchased. 

 It minimises the risk of contagious disease, because it 

 lessens the number of cattle which travel through the coun- 

 try ; and not only is home-bred stock less liable to disease, 

 but it is better suited to the soil and climate. It enables 

 farmers to compete with foreigners in those forms of pro- 



