170 A FARMER'S YEAR 



the quarter, arable farming could be made to give a reasonable 

 return, and everybody must be benefited, not excluding the 

 agricultural labourer. But of this I fear that there is little hope, 

 since the moment there is any moderate profit to be got out of 

 the article, hundreds of thousands more acres will go down in corn 

 all over the world, and especially in Argentina, where they have 

 the advantage of paying their labour in silver and notes at face or 

 nominal value, and being paid for their produce in gold at real 

 value, netting I know not how much per cent, by the transaction. 

 Then grain would be poured into this country as before, and the 

 unfortunate farmer will find that his gleam of hope was delusive, 

 and that he must continue to submit to the grinding and one-sided 

 system of competition which has brought disaster to him and to all 

 dependent upon British land. 1 



Yet the unexpected may happen, and these fears may prove to 

 be unfounded, as I hope devoutly will be the case. For instance, 

 some future Governments of Great Britain may come to the 

 conclusion that in view of possible contingencies it is worth while to 

 keep a larger quantity of land under wheat. I do not mean that 

 they would reimpose the corn duties ; which is improbable unless 

 the agricultural labourer should become convinced that such a step 

 would be to his advantage ; or, as a last resource, the country 

 should insist on it in order to keep the rural population upon 

 the land. But I do mean that possibly it might be wise and politic 

 for the State to give a moderate bounty to the growers of wheat, 

 payable for so long, or whenever the market price of that cereal 

 fell below thirty shillings a quarter. Certain good arguments can 

 be advanced in favour of such a course, but I will only instance 

 one of them that it is worth while to make an effort to preserve the 

 sturdy class of man who has been concerned with the cultivation 

 of the land as a yeoman or tenant farmer, and to check the 

 continual and progressive drifting of the agricultural labourer 

 from the villages that bred him into the maw of the great cities, 



' In illustration of the advantages enjoyed by the foreign over the British 

 farmer the reader is referred to Appendix II. 



