42 GERMANY 



of too much energy on the cultivation of the 

 soil. 



Following on these changing economic condi- 

 tions, together with the altered political situation 

 to which they give rise — a situation that has no 

 exact counterpart in Great Britain — came from 

 Germany that same falling off in agricultural 

 prices which affected our own agricultural classes 

 so seriously when the United States, Canada, 

 Denmark, Australasia, Russia, and other coun- 

 tries joined in the scramble for the conquest, 

 more or less, of the world's food markets. It is 

 true that the agriculturists of Germany had the 

 advantage, from their own point of view, of a 

 Government willing to raise up tariff barriers for 

 their protection, and to this extent they had a 

 greater chance of preserving their own consider- 

 able home markets for themselves than was the 

 case with agriculturists in free-trade England ; 

 but, even with this said advantage, it is extremely 

 improbable that agriculture would have held its 

 own in Germany in the way it has done had not 

 some very special efforts been made for the 

 still further development of her own particular 

 interests. 



One of the fundamental reasons for the results 

 actually attained is, undoubtedly, to be sought 

 in the thoroughgoing system of agricultural in- 



