240 CONCLUSION 



and of the breadths of corn cultivation seems to indicate 

 that the country stands on the edge of a revolution in 

 farming practices, such as characterised the sixteenth and 

 eighteenth centuries. Small farms are easier to let than 

 large holdings, more suited to reduced capitals, better 

 adapted to new requirements. Agi'iculture, if it is to 

 pay, has become a daily drudgery, which men who are 

 worth 5,000?. are indisposed to undergo. Such a re- 

 duction in the size of holdings harmonises with the laws 

 of progress which have been observed as characteristics in 

 society and other industries. Although large farmers 

 with sufficient skill and capital to adopt the best practices 

 of the highest farming may hold their own, the problem 

 of low prices appears to be best met by economical 

 management, minute attention to details, and constant 

 personal supervision. Diversified farming, which con- 

 centrates its efforts on stock breeding, rearing, and 

 fattening, and the production of fresh perishable articles of 

 food, can be pursued with profit upon small holdings, 

 whether farms of 250 acres, or peasant tenancies of fifteen 

 acres where no outlay is made for wages. Prices have 

 undoubtedly fallen ; but land, labour, stock, and all the 

 materials of farming have fallen in proportion. Every 

 county can produce instances of enterprising men who re- 

 gard foreign competition in wheat as a fixed quantity, accept 

 the new conditions, and force the land to pay at present 

 prices. Agricultural depression, in the strict sense of the 

 word, is over for those who are not lured by the will-o'- 

 the-wisp of Protection deeper and further into the Slough 

 of Despond. 



If the change from tillage to pasture is unaccompanied 

 by an extension of present holdings, the new departure 

 which appears to be imminent must inevitably increase 



