74 AGRICULTURE AND TARIFF REFORM. 



It looks, therefore, as tlioiigli tlie laud lias goue 

 largely out of arable cultivation ! 



Anotlier publication issued in 1903 under the 

 Club's auspices is entitled " Free Trade, and the 

 English Farmer." After talking round the sub- 

 ject and insinuating what he docs not prove, the 

 author dismisses the main point in preferential 

 tariff reform {i.e., as it affects feeding stuffs for 

 live stock), in less than seven lines as follows ; — 

 " But let us," ' say some Protectionists,' " put a 

 dutjT- on flour, and permit grain to come in free; 

 then the millers, grinding more corn, and 

 getting a higher price for flour, will sell the 

 offals cheaply to the farmers." " Slieh," saj-s 

 the writer of the publication, " it vv'as claimed, 

 would be the result of the differential duties on 

 corn and flour so lately imposed, and so promptly 

 repealed." 



If the writer in question had but stated the 

 facts regarding those duties and what was claimed 

 for them he vroula have had to admit what has 

 been asserted will result if vfe insist on the 

 foreigner, as far as we can, sending us the whole 

 wheat instead of the flour only; for it is well 

 knovrn — and is proved by the official statistics 

 in another part of this volume — that when those 

 duties were imposed we, in that year, imported 

 less flour, and also ground nearly 10 million 

 cwts. more flour in British mills. We are not 

 surprised, therefore, that the Cobden Club's writer 

 should dismiss this " offals " question in the space 

 alluded to. The extra employment created when 



