THE HOME MARKET 309 



and rear stock at a profit. The large grazing farmer, 

 no doubt, will find it profitable in preparing imported 

 store cattle — the "raw material" — for the markets. 

 Grass land is more profitable and less troublesome to 

 manage than tillage, and fewer labourers are required 

 on it. 



Looked at from any point of view, it seems prob- 

 able that the land of England, so far as the great 

 bulk of it is concerned, will soon become practically a 

 ranch, on which few will be employed besides the 

 herdsman, and, as Bishop Latimer said, the " shepherd 

 and his dogge." 



It is often asked, why should State assistance be 

 given to agriculture any more than to the iron, cotton, 

 or any other industry ? The present writer will have 

 failed in one of his main objects if he has not shown 

 that agriculture is different from all other industries, 

 that it is the basis of all others. The land is Nature's 

 great factory in which the work never ceases by night 

 or day, producing everything we eat, use, wear, or 

 handle. "In agriculture Nature labours along with 

 man ; and though her labour costs no expense, its 

 produce has its value, as well as that of the most 

 expensive workmen."^ 



Every one — man, woman, and child — in the country 

 is affected by the prosperity or depression of agricul- 

 ture. In the proposed land reform the yeoman farmer is 

 regarded as the nation's instrument to secure national 

 gains, comforts, and safety ; the fact that he shares 

 the general advantages of that reform is but an 

 incident in its operation. 



The question is a too comprehensive one to be 



^ "Wealth of Nations," Vol. II, p. 55 (nth edition, 1905). 



