COBDENISM. 78 



Club has persistently and consistently opposed 

 each and every reform brought in by those who 

 have sought to remove any of the said burdens, 

 and it is still so opposed. 



Then we are told that " at SGs. a quarter only 

 will the best of the wheat lands — and those only — 

 pay a living profit." Moreover, " on the whole, 

 it can scarcely be profitable to grow wheat here 

 at a lower range of prices than 36s. to 40s. per 

 quarter." Wheat has not averaged 40s. a quarter 

 since 1883, and yet the Cobden Club has con- 

 tented itself, and still contents itself, with plati- 

 tudes, and with opposing every effort of the great 

 body of farmers themselves to alter the situation. 



Finally, our sapient Club, by its patronage of 

 the book in question, said '' it would be absurd 

 to suppose that land in this country .... 

 Avill go out of cultivation." Well, since 1866, 

 the first year the official figures Avere available, 

 the area devoted to wheat has decreased from 

 3,350,394 acres to 1,497,254 acres in 1903 ; the 

 area devoted to permanent pasture has, in the 

 same period, increased from 11,148,814 acres to 

 16,934,495 acres; and the number of horses, 

 cattle, sheep, and pigs has, since 1869 (the first 

 year the official figures were available), decreased 

 from 38,243,127 head to 36,568,130 head, in spite 

 of the great increase in our general population ! 

 Agricultural capital, too, has enormously de- 

 creased; and the number of farmers and 

 labourers, which in 1851 was 1,904,687, has 

 decreased to 988,340 at the last Census of 1901, 



