78 THE FUTURE OF OUR AGRICULTURE. 



of present deterioration. Taken collectively, that has 

 produced little, not only because any soil capable of being 

 treated as arable land will yield considerably more under 

 arable tillage than under grass, but even more, because 

 among the 3,700,000 acres laid down to grass within the past 

 four decades there is a large proportion of land which is really 

 not fit for pasturing. During the Napoleonic wars, when 

 wheat was dear, we ploughed up much land which was 

 really not fit for wheat growing — as we may see — for instance, 

 on the Sussex Downs — in disused whilom wheatfields still 

 showing the furrows overgrown with indifferent, wiry 

 grass — which is rather a warning for the present advocates 

 of wheat growing quand meme. Now, during depression, 

 we have gone to the other extreme, laying down to grass 

 land which is not fit for such use. However, " grazing 

 farming " is " lazy farming." And the average farmer 

 prefers easy going to business. " As long as consi-derable 

 areas of grazing land are to be hired cheaply, the farmer 

 considers that he obtains an easier and safer return on his 

 available capital by grazing than by putting the land under 

 the plough. His personal profit does not coincide with the 

 national interest." He does not consider that the higher profit 

 which he would earn by arable farming would make up 

 " for the greater capital required and the constant labour, 

 anxiety and risk attending arable farming." If the truth 

 be told, he is also short of such capital. " Speaking gener- 

 ally," so wrote Mr. Hall, "it is not too much to say that 

 they (farmers on an average) are insufficiently educated and 

 short of capital for the business they have in hand. Putting 

 aside a substantial minority and many brilliant exceptions, 

 they have not been touched by the revival of agricultural 

 education that has taken place during the past twenty 

 years " (and in the promotion of which we must allow the 

 Board of Agriculture to have shown creditable zeal), " and 

 do not take advantage of the technical assistance that is 

 now at their service. Most of all, their business training 

 is at fault ; they often enough are capable enough crafts- 

 men, but they are bound within a narrow routine and show 

 no adaptability either in their management or in their 



