PRODITTIOX 89 



the threat, the otlier countries adopted a ver)^ different 

 one. Here the landowners reduced their rents to assist 

 the farmers, and the farmers reduced their labour bill 

 and put the minimum into the land — with the inevitable 

 result, decrease in the output from the soil. 



We remained unorganized. We stuck to our four- 

 year rotation of cropping as if it were something in- 

 violable ; but we did not adhere to the proportion of 

 land which, when the four-year system was at its zenith, 

 it was considered should be kept under the plough. 

 Four million acres of arable were allowed to " tall 

 down " to grass. 



Our Scottish farmers departed from the strict 

 formula of the four-year cropping, and adopting fairly 

 generally a five-year course (under which the clover ley 

 was left down for three years) they weathered the 

 depression far better than we did. 



On the Continent the line adopted was : Produc- 

 tion per acre must be increased, new systems of 

 cropping must be developed, and the industry must 

 be organized. 



I think the comparisons I have given make clear 

 which was the right, and which was the wrong, method. 



And we are again at the parting of the ways ; one 

 road leads to progress and development, the other to 

 retrogression. 



Which road are we going to take ? It seems probable 

 that it will not be the question of the price of produce 

 which will be the determining factor — rather that of 

 labour ; but it comes to much the same in the end. And 

 if we now go in once more for a policy of curtailing 

 our agriculture, the results will be di.sastrous. 



We did not tackle the situation in 1S70 in the right 

 way ; to-day we shall have less excuse lor going wrong, 



