APPENDIX 471 



to London. Above all, everything is done on an enormous scale, and the 

 economy of supervision and management is therefore minimised, and 

 an owner can afford to get less profit, because it is a question of a 

 small gain on large quantities. May I be allowed to quote my own 

 case, not as being an exceptional one quite the reverse. My estancia 

 contains about ten thousand acres. Between 1892 and 1897 it con- 

 sisted of about four thousand acres of arable land, and the remainder 

 in paddocks of lucerne or alfalfa, laid down after several crops of 

 wheat had been taken from the ground. We sow about a bushel to 

 the acre of wheat, and average about fifteen for one in good years and 

 ten in bad ones say twelve all round. The reader can calculate the 

 result and deduct probable expenses, if he is an expert, and if not, he 

 can take my word that English farmers are out of the running. As 

 regards stock, we had given up breeding, except a fine stock point of 

 about five hundred head. We bought store cattle from up countiy, 

 and passed through about four to five thousand fat stock yearly, rarely 

 making less than 30 per cent, increase on the purchasing price. 

 Horses 'breed themselves,' and are no trouble to any one, running out 

 all the year through. We bred ' vanners ' from Shire stock. We had 

 a small stock of two thousand Lincoln sheep, which in three years 

 gave me over 100 per cent, in wool and wethers, but I sold the flock, 

 as it took up so much time in keeping down the scab. How, then, 

 can the English farmers compete with us? Of course, drought, 

 disease, and locusts often do terrible damage, but, taking all things 

 into account, we can ' win as we like,' and time only strengthens our 

 position, as we continue to improve the class of stock and open up 

 more country with new railways. Thousands of fine beasts and tens 

 of thousands of sheep are annually sent alive to England and there 

 killed and sold as 'home grown.' The Army and Navy Stores may 

 differentiate between ' fresh killed foreign ' and ' home grown,' but not 

 the British butcher. No ! English agriculture is a thing of the past, 

 and land in England has to-day practically little more than a prairie 

 value as far as the farmer is concerned. 



Yours, &c., 



FREDERICK MARRYAT, 

 16 IDDESLEIGH MANSIONS, WESTMINSTER ; 

 June 1 6, 



