as THE LAND AND ITS PROBLEMS 



than this ; we want to have our right proportion of small 

 farmers (owning their farms where they wish to), well- 

 housed, living comfortably, and organized as highly as 

 they are in Denmark or in the Taranaki district of 

 New Zealand. 



METHODS OF MEETING THE COMPETITION OF THE 



NEW WORLD 



It was about the year 1870 that the competition of 

 the new countries began to make itself felt in agricul- 

 tural products. 



But even before this the peoples and Governments 

 of the continental countries had begun to devise a 

 " land policy " and to organize the agricultural industry ; 

 they were wiser in their generation than we. And the 

 result of their wisdom was that they were enabled to 

 carry on a steady expansion of the primary industry, 

 in spite of the blast of competition from the tillers 

 of virgin soil. 



Whereas, far from expansion, in this country there 

 was a steady shrinkage from 1875 onwards when the 

 depression fairly set in. 



In the golden era of our agriculture, 1840 to i860, 

 and up to 1870, the farmer's working capital was about 

 5(^10 per acre ; after the depression and up to the out- 

 break of the Great War that capital was down to about 

 3^5 ^^ L^ P^^ acre, taking an average for the whole 

 country, while on a similar basis the continental farmer's 

 working capital was from £11 to £1^ per acre with an 

 upward tendency. On the Continent land was attracting 

 capital ; in England it was not. 



The competition from the new countries threatened all 

 old countries aHke ; we adopted one method of meeting 



