The Farmer 



there is now Uttle doubt that the EngHsh 

 method was not the best, and that it has 

 proved most disastrous to agriculture. 



The fiscal aspect is not now at all under 

 consideration, but only the manner in which the 

 farmers themselves dealt with the situation. 



The English farmer met this competition, and 

 the resulting depression, by reducing his ex- 

 penditure on the land, by cutting down his 

 labour bill, by largely diminishing the tillage, 

 by ploughing four inches deep instead of six, by 

 working the soil less and by putting less into the 

 soil in the way of manure ; also, alas ! in many 

 cases by neglecting the hedgerows, ditches and 

 drains : in short he so reduced the expenditure 

 on the whole operation of cultivating the land 

 as in many cases to starve the soil, so that now 

 it will not even pay for the decreased amount of 

 care and money spent upon it. 



To reduce expenditure is praiseworthy if it 

 can be accomplished economically, but starving 

 the soil is false economy. 



On the continent the leaders of the agricul- 

 tural industry acted in the opposite way. 



" How is this competition from new countries 

 to be met ? " they asked. By making each acre 

 produce more than heretofore, by spending 

 more on the land, above all by teaching the 

 cultivator better methods and showing him how 

 to increase his expenditure economically, i.e., to 



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