42 A FARMER'S YEAR 



companies at easier rates than our own, as, whatever the letter of 

 the law may be, in fact they are? Or, to take another instance, 

 for the want of a simple preventive Act should we be forced to 

 stand helpless while foreign meat is sold by dishonest butchers 

 as best home-grazed and at the prices which home-grazed 

 commands ? ' Reduce the rents ' is a favourite answer from a 

 certain section of politicians to all the complaints of farmers; 

 but as one who both pays rent and farms land of his own, I 

 say again : It is not the rent that crushes us ; it is the prices we 

 receive for our produce, and the unjust taxation, frauds and harsh 

 dealing of which we are the victims. 



To turn from these lamentations to the cause of them. The 

 statements of account that I have given above must fill any 

 sympathetic reader with awful reflections on the fate of those 

 unfortunate persons who, having land in bad condition thrown 

 upon their hands, have been forced to borrow money to farm it. 

 Then, in addition to the various outgoings enumerated above, 

 there would be five per cent, to the bank for the loan of the capital, 

 and probably another five per cent, or so to meet the premiums of 

 the insurance which the bank requires as extra security to cover 

 its advance. Under these circumstances, the working of a 3oo-acre 

 farm would bring any but a rich man to bankruptcy in ten years. 

 Happily, however, I escaped the necessity of borrowing, so the 

 loss is only the loss of possible rent and interest, of which neither 

 might have been realised. Indeed, the capital itself might per- 

 haps have been invested away in some other direction ; for at 

 least remember this, O reader one loses money more slowly in 

 farming than in any other fashion. 



After some experience, at my present age, I have come to the 

 conclusion that, were I a rich man, there are only two things 

 in which I would invest my wealth at prevailing prices : land 

 (including farming on a very large scale), and the various forms 

 of life insurance. Perhaps Chippendale furniture, discreetly 

 purchased, might be added to the list, but this is a business for 

 the instructed only. If any reader of this book will act upon the 



