72 AGRICULTURE AND TARIFF REFORM. 



is certainly very much to the disadvantage of the 

 country that land should be diverted from arable 

 cultivation to grass " ; and then, it is added, that 

 "the non-agricultural classes will be wise, even 

 from a selfish point of view, if they not only 

 refrain from opposing, but earnestly help forward 

 any reasonable reforms or concessions which give 

 farmers a fair chance of meeting foreign competi- 

 tion." The Cobden Club has, of course, never 

 done anything to bring back grass to plough- 

 land; and its attitude even now is opposed to 

 the reforms which the great body of agricultural 

 opinion considers " reasonable." 



The " wheat-growing area of the world has 

 already (1888) begun to contract," says the book, 

 and " will be seriously diminished imless the 

 average price of wheat is about 40s. a quarter in 

 England." The very reverse has been the fact; 

 and wheat in England has not for years been 

 "about 40s. a quarter," whilst last year it was 

 only 26s. 9d. 



The Club's author asked, " Will the foreign 

 supplies of wheat keep up at anything like cur- 

 rent (1888) prices ? " and he answered his own 

 question by saying, " My contention is that they 

 will not." Price or no price being " kept up," 

 the supplies have kept up, and that is the prac- 

 tical part of the whole business. 



The " land of this country," said the writer, 

 " will not bear all the burdens laid upon it in 

 more prosperous times." Anyone knows that; 

 but the party mainly identified with the Cobden 



