Credit 



takes refuge in the pockets of shareholders, but 

 the farmer cannot fly to others, nor would he 

 take partners if he could, so that, driven by land 

 hunger, he is nearly always under-capitalized, 

 however wealthy. 



This leads to one of the worst agricultural 

 abuses — the starving of the soil. If we turn to 

 Denmark as an example we find that an average 

 capital per acre will be, perhaps, £20 over a 

 large farm, whilst in England it is rarely more 

 than a third of that sum. They have more horse 

 and hand labour per acre, more artificial manure, 

 and as a corollary, immensely more produce. 

 An equally glaring contrast could doubtless be 

 drawn between the rich soils of South Lincolnshire 

 and such poor localities as, say, some parts of 

 Essex; but the point is that Denmark has not a 

 rich soil at all. Rider Haggard, on making a visit, 

 especially notes that their soil is not as good as 

 our best, and on an average is certainly not 

 better than ours. But their average yield per 

 acre is more than twice ours, a fact which should 

 make us blush. This is a good deal due to their 

 credit facilities and co-operative systems, and it 

 is to be hoped that something will be done in 

 England in the same direction. The farmer, if he 

 is to flourish and efficiently farm the land, needs 

 more capital than is at present employed. Capital 



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