HINTS 



ON 



VEGETABLE AND FRUIT FARMING. 



The problem of the Future of Farming appears difficult of solu- 

 tion. Some alarmists hold that the British farmer's occupation 

 is gone ; while others believe that the situation merely necessi- 

 tates a change of system, and that if he energetically levels up 

 his practice to meet altered circumstances, he may still have a 

 profitable business. There are clear-headed men, gifted with 

 an intuitive faculty of perception, and whose judgments are 

 unaffected by panic, who say that corn-farming, pure and 

 simple, will again pay in this country where the conditions are 

 suitable, especially if some unfair burdens are removed from land, 

 as they undoubtedly will be now that they have been so clearly 

 set forth and brought prominently under the notice of the 

 country and the Legislature. Every one knows that the wretched 

 state of agriculturists during the last three years has been mainly 

 caused by a cycle of wet seasons, which has happened before, 

 and will happen again in due meteorological order. Most of 

 the produce was of inferior quality during this cycle, and 

 realised lower prices on account, in a degree, of the importation 

 of the products of other countries, to the great advantage of the 

 consumers. But this by no means is to be the normal state of 

 our agriculture. Cycles of fine weather again will bring cycles 

 of prosperity and contentment in Arcadia. There also are 

 signs that the cost of the production of wheat will be increased 

 in the United States, and that the effect of competition with that 

 country will not be so disastrous to the home wheat-producer as 

 some have prophesied. Fortunately there are other things than 

 wheat for the English farmers to depend upon. There are meat- 

 making, which will not for a long time, if ever, materially be 

 interfered with by foreign competition ; barley growing, wool 

 producing, butter and cheese making, fruit, seeds, and vegetable 

 culture, poultry rearing, and breeding of good animals of all 

 kinds for home requirements and exportation. If we inquire 



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