THE FOREIGNER. 187 



continuing. The demand was for more meat and therefore 

 the corn crop was likely to prove more profitable to the 

 growers than the wheat crop. The war had certainly 

 stimulated wheat production, but they were now going back 

 to the normal acreage in the United States of America. The 

 prospects as regards supplies were not so favourable as 

 Captain Hinckes had indicated in his closing remarks, and 

 it might be that conditions in America would result in 

 Europe being left to look after its own cereal supplies. 



During the life of the Club the conditions of Agriculture 

 at home were sufficiently engrossing to occupy its attention, 

 but had it continued it might usefully have given more 

 consideration to the conditions of Agriculture overseas. 

 The extent to which the factors of agricultural production 

 thousands of miles away affect the economic position of the 

 British farmer is even yet inadequately realised. The prices 

 of nearly all his main products ultimately depend on the 

 balance of conflicting and inter-acting forces all over the 

 world. In all affairs of business the man who takes long 

 views will, generally speaking, succeed better than him who 

 keeps his eyes fixed on the immediate prospect. In the 

 business of farming this is especially true because of the 

 exceptionally long period required to adjust supply to 

 demand. A factory can speed up or slow down its output 

 at very short notice, but on a farm a crop must be sown at its 

 proper season or not at all, and when once put in the ground 

 it has to be disposed of when harvested whatever changes 

 may have occurred in the markets. Still slower is the 

 process of increasing or decreasing the output of meat. 

 This being the case, it is curious that of all men of business 

 farmers are probably the most prone to be affected by 

 temporary movements and the least inclined to consider 

 permanent tendencies. The rush of farmers to buy land at 

 the inflated prices of the boom a year or two ago was an 

 instance of short-sighted optimism, while on the other hand, 

 a sudden fall in the corn or stock markets reduces them at 

 once to despair, if their panic-stricken outcries represent 

 their real opinions. 



