CONCLUSION. 489 



as to assure to the tiller a full return for all that he puts into 

 his cultivation. 



Manifestly here is good work to be done, tempting to 

 patriotic reformers, calculated to make our Agriculture very 

 much more productive and to forearm us against a new war, 

 should Providence hold such in reserve for us. Provided 

 that the several interests concerned will work heartily 

 together, and that a good authoritative lead is given them, 

 no doubt the work may be successfully accomplished. 



However, of course, as usual, there are supposed to be 

 " lions in the way," obstacles which make achievement 

 difficult, if not impossible. Whenever we come to have 

 others set up as examples for us, we are sure to detect some 

 difference in circumstances, which constitutes a bar to 

 emulation. La moglie degli altri e sempre piu bella — it is 

 always the other fellow who has the better- looking wife, that is, 

 some particular favouring circumstances to help him. This 

 argument is in the present instance urged more particularly 

 as applying to Germany, which country one can quite 

 understand that people relish little having set up to them as 

 a model. Such application, however, ignores the fact that 

 Denmark, a goodly portion of Switzerland, the Netherlands, 

 and poor Belgium, as also the United States, are likewise 

 set up as models with quite as much to teach us as the coun- 

 try of "Father Thaer " and Liebig. However, let us for the 

 moment stick to Germany ! Germany, so it is contended, has 

 for agricultural purposes a more favourable climate than we. 

 And then there is that wonderful German aptitude for 

 organisation ! There is, indeed, in Germany more sunshine 

 and more summer warmth than are allowed to us. The 

 holida}' maker coming into Lancashire in a rainy season 

 very likely will pronounce the local climate " vile." How- 

 ever the local cotton-spinner knows well how much that 

 grimy moisture is worth to him. It is the same with Agricul- 

 ture. There is indeed more sun abroad, and that sun will 

 ripen crops which it would be hopeless to expect to arrive at 

 maturity here, under our clouds and murky sky, in a country 

 in which, as Lord Byron has it, though it commands an 

 empire " on which the sun never sets," yet as a matter of 



